Do killer whales have a sense of humor?

[keithbvadu2]

Do killer whales have a sense of humor?

[Judi Lynn]

1. I would have assumed they would have munched them. Interesting!

They are completely interested in eating seals, every time.

Thanks for the video.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. They're actually huge assholes.

Seriously. They're the assholes of the sea.

[ismnotwasm]

14. For real

Having a sense of humor would make them sadists

[Kid Berwyn]

3. Orcas understand and care.

Remember the little boy who was mistakenly attacked by a Killer Whale in Alaska?

Boy's orca encounter short, scary

Whale researchers say it was highly unusual for a killer whale to bump a 12-year-old boy splashing in shallow water near Ketchikan. Ellis Miller found himself...

By The Associated Press

KETCHIKAN, Alaska — Whale researchers say it was highly unusual for a killer whale to bump a 12-year-old boy splashing in shallow water near Ketchikan.

Ellis Miller found himself face-to-face with an orca charging at him in 4 feet of water Saturday in Helm Bay. The animal, estimated to be more than 25 feet long, bumped but did not bite him.

"I looked underwater and there was this huge head right in front of me," Ellis told the Ketchikan Daily News.

SNIP...

The whale bumped Ellis on the left side of his chest and shoulder, then arched around him.

"Ellis was in the middle, and he was totally surrounded," Kathy Arntzen said.

She reached forward and grabbed Ellis as the pressure wave caused by the whale's rapid advance swept them toward the beach.

"Within a second we were on the shore," Kathy said. "We got out fast."

The episode lasted about five seconds, they said.

As the orca returned to deeper water, six more killer whales surfaced near the beach.

They swam along the beach for 100 yards or so and then returned. They swam back and forth several times. On the last pass, the largest orca rolled onto its side, raised a pectoral fin and smacked the water about five times. Then it hit the water with its tail. The other whales followed in a line and began doing the same.

"It was like the whole bay was boiling at this point," Kathy Arntzen said. "They were up and down and making noise. ... It was like they were signaling us."

CONTINUED...

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2002445380_orca19m.html

[machoneman]

4. They were signaling: give us the boy or Mom gets it!

[Digger]

8. Haha

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

12. .

[Solly Mack]

5. They're in the Dolphin family and probably understand that people are, well, people.

Humans, that is. Dolphins seem to know we're squishy and frail. An oddity that's fun to engage with for some dolphin quality shits and giggles.

Perhaps they behave differently toward people in the wild as opposed to when people keep them contained in a tank for amusement?

Any deaths to humans from killer whales in the wild?

Or have the deaths all been by those in held in captivity?

I don't know.

I, myself, would have pissed my pants. But would still have been awed.

Smelly and awed.

[roamer65]

6. Their main question.

Is it a seal or not?

[Noodleboy13]

7. One thing that struck me about the documentary "blackfish"

was that there have been no reported orca attacks on humans in the wild.




Reported.

"Hey man , you seen Nanook in the last few days?"
" Naw dude, he went out fishing in his kayak a couple days ago."


peace,
Noodleboy

[hunter]

9. Years ago my kids and I were body surfing when a small pod of porpoises started teasing people...

... chasing some out of the water.

I'm certain the porpoises were laughing at us. Extra points if you make a human pee or poop in their swimsuits.

Heh, heh, humans, we be great white sharks today.

I've been bumped by playful sea lions as well, which is scary. They're much more agile in the water and much larger than I am. And they have big teeth.

Orca society doesn't mess with humans. Grandma orcas probably tell their grandchildren not to eat us, humans taste like rancid meat and wars with us are costly.

[panader0]

10. I saw them several times while surfing as a teen in Hawaii.

Surfers were always happy to see porpoises because they seemed to keep sharks away.
Beautiful creatures.

[hunter]

13. They are clearly intelligent, sentient, social creatures like ourselves.

I feel much the same about dogs, wolves, and sea lions, but Cetacean cultures seem to have deeper levels of complexity.

How can we ever hope to communicate with hypothetical space aliens when we do such a bad job communicating with our fellow sentient species here on earth?

[Polybius]

11. Why anyone would swim that far out boggles my mind

What's the logic of it?

[hunter]

15. I swim that far out. Don't know why. It's not logical.

Once upon a time, more than forty years ago when I was a young wild thing, I stripped off all my clothes and swam into the surf about an hour or two past midnight.

Somebody must have seen me and called the cops that there was some crazy guy trying to drown himself.

I swam back to shore, in my birthday suit, wondering what all the flashing blue lights and fuss was about.

Unfortunately I couldn't immediately find my clothes amidst all the piles of kelp on the beach.

Fortunately the cops knew me as an amusing diversion from their usual sordid graveyard shift duties of domestic violence and belligerent drunks and a nice officer with a flashlight helped me find my clothes.

[keithbvadu2]

16. As they swim away chuckling to each other.

As they swim away chuckling to each other.