Rapid Fire
Orcas
- 31 Aug 2024
- 1 min read
Recently, a group of Orcas had attacked a sailboat off the coast of Spain. Since 2020, over 700 interactions between orcas and boats near the Strait of Gibraltar have been recorded.
- Theories Behind Orca Behavior:
- Playful Behaviour: Some scientists believe orcas may be targeting boats as a form of play, where young orcas learn and repeat new behaviours.
- Traumatic Response: Some scientists theorise that a traumatic event, like getting tangled in fishing lines, might have triggered aggressive behaviour in orcas.
- Some scientists suspect that a female orca (White Gladis), went through a similar traumatising experience, which altered her behaviour.
- About Orcas: Orcas, or killer whales, are the largest member of the dolphin family.
- They use echolocation to communicate and hunt.
- Echolocation is a technique used by bats, dolphins and other animals to determine the location of objects using reflected sound.
- They use echolocation to communicate and hunt.
- Each Orcas group (pod) has distinctive noises that its members will recognise even at a distance.
- They are apex predators with diverse diets, consuming fish, penguins, seals, sea lions, and even whales, using four-inch-long teeth.
