The task of feeding is just that, a task. Remember the story of the little red hen who found some grain and decided that instead of eating it she would plant it but she needed help?
"Who will help me plant the grain?"
"Not I," said the dog. "Not I," said the duck. "Not I," said the cat etc.
Who will help me water the seeds? Who will help me tend the wheat? Who will help me thresh the wheat? Who will help me mill the wheat into flour? and so on.
When it comes time to ask "Who will help me EAT the bread?" The dog and the duck and the cat say "I will!!" and the little red hen is all "Bitch, please!" and enjoys her bread all by her damn self!
This is not Orca culture. Orcas share. Depending on where they live and what they eat, their hunting strategies vary greatly and are passed from generation to generation within the group.
Pierre Robert explained it last night using the Norwegian Orca population's technique of using echolocation as a group to find their prey.
They line up in a row and sweep the area sending out clicks of sound waves which travel through the water and return back to them with information that the whales perceive and interpret. They have such intelligence that they've even worked out the notion of space-time. They know that the sound waves take longer to bounce back from depth or distance. They can also interpret the returning waves originally emitted from their companions.
I can elaborate on the concept of mass echolocation in this way:
Imagine a ring of tourists all standing around some monumental statue. Each one can take a selfie in front of the statue and send it to their people at home so the the people at home can see the statue. Now what if this gang of tourists were all a part of the same family? Cousin Emily back home would receive images from each of her kin from all around the statue. She could get a pretty good idea of what the statue looked like because each image, taken from a different angle would reveal a part of the monument and cousin Emily could use her brain to put it all together and create a mapping of the thing.
Orcas in Norway can find schools of herring 300 m deep. The big males dive deep to drive the Herring to the surface where the others herd them into bait balls. Some feed while others swim to maintain the structure of the bait ball. Pierre Robert has remarked that this strategy has evolved to make it harder for "Not I," said the Humpback. The Orca used to make a single vertical column of herring corralled into a fishnado, easily targeted by the Hungry Hungry Humpbacks who would lazily lunge right up and steal it. More recently, they manoeuvre the herring laterally along the surface making it more of a moving target and keeping their little red hen bread all to themselves!
Our in-water encounter on November 15th was all about watching them use these techniques to feed cooperatively and I still haven't quite found a way to impart the magnitude of the size of these animals or the awe that I felt.
"Not I," said the dog. "Not I," said the duck. "Not I," said the cat etc.
Who will help me water the seeds? Who will help me tend the wheat? Who will help me thresh the wheat? Who will help me mill the wheat into flour? and so on.
When it comes time to ask "Who will help me EAT the bread?" The dog and the duck and the cat say "I will!!" and the little red hen is all "Bitch, please!" and enjoys her bread all by her damn self!
This is not Orca culture. Orcas share. Depending on where they live and what they eat, their hunting strategies vary greatly and are passed from generation to generation within the group.
Pierre Robert explained it last night using the Norwegian Orca population's technique of using echolocation as a group to find their prey.
They line up in a row and sweep the area sending out clicks of sound waves which travel through the water and return back to them with information that the whales perceive and interpret. They have such intelligence that they've even worked out the notion of space-time. They know that the sound waves take longer to bounce back from depth or distance. They can also interpret the returning waves originally emitted from their companions.
I can elaborate on the concept of mass echolocation in this way:
Imagine a ring of tourists all standing around some monumental statue. Each one can take a selfie in front of the statue and send it to their people at home so the the people at home can see the statue. Now what if this gang of tourists were all a part of the same family? Cousin Emily back home would receive images from each of her kin from all around the statue. She could get a pretty good idea of what the statue looked like because each image, taken from a different angle would reveal a part of the monument and cousin Emily could use her brain to put it all together and create a mapping of the thing.
Orcas in Norway can find schools of herring 300 m deep. The big males dive deep to drive the Herring to the surface where the others herd them into bait balls. Some feed while others swim to maintain the structure of the bait ball. Pierre Robert has remarked that this strategy has evolved to make it harder for "Not I," said the Humpback. The Orca used to make a single vertical column of herring corralled into a fishnado, easily targeted by the Hungry Hungry Humpbacks who would lazily lunge right up and steal it. More recently, they manoeuvre the herring laterally along the surface making it more of a moving target and keeping their little red hen bread all to themselves!
Our in-water encounter on November 15th was all about watching them use these techniques to feed cooperatively and I still haven't quite found a way to impart the magnitude of the size of these animals or the awe that I felt.
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