Celebrating Shamu (and her relatives)

HEY guys!

So being that I just found out that today is, in fact, National Orca Day, where we take a moment to appreciate the grand beauty of those absolutely terrifying underwater pandas cutely nicknamed “killer whales”, I thought it was high time (sorry in my head I thought that would translate as a “high tide” pun. My apologies) that I dedicate an entire post on these fascinating creatures. So, here goes five facts about Orcas you probably had no clue about, and probably don’t care either way about. Just go with the flow okay? (pun 100% intended)

Image copyright Rob Lott/WDC - orca 997 in Iceland, February 2013

1. Orca males are very much like the pizza-box-hoarding-basement-living-gamers of today’s world. Meaning, they never leave their mothers. Even when they are very politely cut off from funding, and discretely have their own online dating profile created, they STILL stick with their birthgivers. And nobody judges them for it.

Image source: WIkimedia Commons

2. Going along with their no-judgements pod policy, Orca whales don’t hold back on eating a little extra (for “hibernation” reasons, right guys?) Orcas eat around 375 pounds of food per day, and rightfully so as they spend half of their day hunting around for that food. Being that they have a liking for meat, such as seals, sea otters, rays, and sharks (yes. sharks.), their food tends to be a lot harder to catch than the Humpback’s krill, so they require even MORE food to make up for that expended energy. It’s a vicious cycle my friends, it truly is.

Image source: NatGeo WIld

3. Orca pods have their own culture, passed down from generation to generation, that includes specific dialect in which they can talk behind the orcas from the other pods’ backs. Seriously, those little clicks, whistles, and pulsed calls are their way of saying, “Oh my god Gretchen, did you see what she was wearing?” and other important messages needing to be transmitted across the waters.

Image source: MCT via Getty Images

4. This one may have been obvious, considering their terrifyingly gigantic size, but Orca whales have the second heaviest brain among marine mammals (behind sperm whales). This does beg the revisiting of the decade-long debate: does having a larger brain capacity necessitate a faster connection between neurons, and therefore a higher intelligence quotient? You decide.

Image source: Vancouver Island Outdoors

5. Last but not least, female Orcas are the only non-human species (aside from only pilot whales) who are lucky enough to undergo the female version of the mid-life crisis: menopause. Although, how hot flashes would occur in the frigid waters of the Arctic, I’m yet to be sure of, but I send my sympathies nonetheless.

Image source: Erica Sebae blog

Alright guys, I hope you enjoyed my completely scientifically-backed orca whale factoids.

I actually would just like to say, though, that after watching Blackfish (which yes, I realize I’m super late into watching/reacting) I definitely feel a lot more respect for these beautiful (albeit a little intimidating) creatures and I feel a lot more sympathy for their misunderstood misnomer of “killer whale”. I mean, if you put any creature of such a size into a cage only a few feet bigger, especially when the creature is used to travelling over 800 miles of Pacific Ocean, you can’t be surprised if it lashes out violently or develops emotional distress, can you? I’m just saying, I’m definitely going to be more careful about spending money on programs that poorly claim to “help rehabilitate” such mammals at the same time they’re kidnapping and separating them from their biological mothers and raising them in cramped underwater prisons. I don’t mean to sound like a hippy-dippy-save-the-whales kind of person, but I am definitely an advocate of spending a day like this one to celebrate the continued existence of such a complex and fascinating animal, and its fortuitous ability to still coexist peacefully in its natural habitat.

Here’s to the whales, and to their rights as free animals justified in living an uninhibited life in the wild.

Happy National Orca Day everybody, and see you tomorrow!

Regina L.