#killer whales

[orcinus-veterinarius]

Learning anything about marine mammal training will make you re-evaluate so much of your relationship with your own pets. There is so much force involved in the way we handle domestic animals. Most of it isn’t even intentional, it just stems from impatience. I’m guilty of it myself!

But with the exception of certain veterinary settings where the animal’s health is the immediate priority, why is it so important to us that animals do exactly what we want exactly when we want it? Why do we have to invent all these tools and contraptions to force them to behave?

When a whale swam away from a session, that was that. The trainer just waited for them to decide to come back. If they flat out refused to participate in behaviors, they still got their allotment of fish. Nothing bad happened. Not even when 20-30 people were assembled for a procedure, and the whale chose not to enter the medical pool. No big deal. Their choice and comfort were prioritized over human convenience.

It’s almost shocking to return to domestic animal medicine afterwards and watch owners use shock collars and chokers and whips to control their animals. It’s no wonder that positive reinforcement was pioneered by marine mammal trainers. When you literally can’t force an animal to do what you want, it changes your entire perspective.

I want to see that mindset extended to our domestic animals.

[animalpayback]

Oh hell yes.

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[mindblowingscience]

A pair of marine mammal scientists at The University of British Columbia, has found that claims that a lack of access to salmon is what is driving the crash in population numbers for southern resident killer whales of the Pacific are wrong. In their paper published on the open-access site PLOS ONE, Burak Saygili and Andrew Trites describe how they consulted with sport anglers and whale-watching crews to learn more about the orcas' access to chinook salmon. Prior research has shown that the southern resident killer whales of the Pacific are struggling. Not only are their numbers dwindling, but the number of offspring is dropping dramatically. And nobody knows why.

Continue Reading.

[radicalgraff]

"Sink the Rich"

Seen in London

[staff]

tumblr tuesday: team gladis

We're in the thrall of Gladis and her little terrors! Whether you believe they're annoyed at yachts because they want to play in the jetstreams of motorboat engines, or you believe they're taking back the ocean and nature is winning—we can probably all agree that the noble orca makes for excellent art. Luckily, your local Artists on Tumblr agree.

@artofsoul1999:

@livelaughlongsword:

@natedraws:

@aquatic-batt:

@mojavewastes:

@calimariari:

@artsyaxolotl:

(bonus fun orca fact by @platypu here)

[odinsblog]

[gameraboy2]

Jem (1985), "The Rock Fashion Book"

[whereifindsanity]

Orcas hunting (wave washing) seals.

[mostly-funnytwittertweets]

[typhlonectes]

[mockingnerd]

Like so many of us orca nerds in the 90s, I followed Keiko’s life closely. I still have a folder full of newspaper clippings from every stage of his rehabilitation journey, and recently rewatched an old documentary I used to have on repeat. It got me thinking about how special he was and I wanted to do a tribute, so: here he is surrounded by mountain avens, the national flower of Iceland, his original home.

[orcinus-veterinarius]

Are dolphins still being captured for aquariums/parks and is it ethical (or complicated?)

Thanks for the ask! Yes, captures unfortunately do still occur in unregulated countries, though far less frequently than in the past. One of the most infamous examples is the annual dolphin drive in Taiji, Japan. While the main purpose of this hunt is to kill animals for meat, a small number of young, attractive dolphins are kept alive each year for sale. Nowadays, only unaccredited institutions purchase these dolphins, and even the Japanese Association of Zoos and Aquariums now prohibits its members from acquiring captured dolphins. Although Taiji is the most well-known, the majority of cetaceans captured from the wild in the 2000s/2010s came from Russia, which recently prohibited the practice.

Western parks and aquariums have not purchased wild-captured cetaceans in decades. The last captures in US waters occurred in 1989, and the last foreign imports were in the early 1990s (long before widespread public sentiment turned against dolphinariums). I do not believe the practice was ethical, and almost all my colleagues would agree with me. Some of them were indeed brutal affairs, such as the infamous Penn Cove captures, in which several young Southern Resident killer whales (including the famous Tokitae) were taken. Multiple animals were inadvertently killed, and the hunters clumsily attempted to hide the deaths by stuffing the whales’ corpses with rocks. The bodies resurfaced, and following public backlash orca captures were no longer performed in the US.

As awareness of animal welfare grew amongst scientists and the general public in the 70s and 80s, collections of smaller cetacean species became considerably less vicious. They were typically supervised by a veterinarian, and care was taken to ensure animals were not physically harmed. However, these were still undeniably stressful to the animals.

I’m glad the practice stopped. Dolphins are not endangered, and I don’t think we can justify the trauma of removing healthy young animals from their pods. Of course, I make exceptions for individuals that are ill, injured, or a danger to themselves or humans (like Clearwater Marine Aquarium’s Izzy)—and these situations are never taken lightly. And if a species ever became endangered (highly unlikely for bottlenose, but a possibility for belugas), that would also be cause for reevaluation.

Dolphins do quite well in modern accredited aquariums. In the United States, all managed dolphins were either born in human care or have been out of the wild for over 30 years (excluding non-releasable rescues). While there are valid concerns about cetacean captivity, ongoing wild capture is not one of them.

[cherryvazquez]

Tha fig cookie !

<3

[mindblowingscience]

More than 150 years ago, a San Francisco whaler noticed something about killer whales that scientists may be about to formally recognize—at least in name. Charles Melville Scammon submitted a manuscript to the Smithsonian in 1869 describing two species of killer whales inhabiting West Coast waters. Now a new paper published in Royal Society Open Science uses genetic, behavioral, morphological and acoustic data to argue that the orcas in the North Pacific known as residents and transients are different enough to be distinct species. They propose using the same scientific names Scammon is believed to have coined in the 19th century.

Continue Reading.

[kropotkindersurprise]

April, 2023 - A group of orcas disable a boat near Spain by destroying the boat’s rudders. [video]