Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: roo_ster on February 26, 2010, 05:48:27 PM
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Ya think?
Great googly moogly are some folks dense.
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2010/02/killer-whale-name.html
Of all the explanations put forward in the wake of the death of a trainer at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, perhaps the most bizarre is that the killer whale was enacting a mating behaviour.
"He was used a lot [by SeaWorld] for mating, and could have even been enacting a mating behavior during the incident," said Nancy Black, who runs California's Monterey Bay Whale Watch. Black also told Discovery News that the orca, Tilikum, could have "lashed out" from stress or boredom.
Isn't it strange that the killer whale is being characterised as aggressive? Killer whales are top predators. You wouldn't be surprised if a tiger lashed out at someone. Is it because we are so fond of cetaceans and their intelligence that we forget what they are? Or are we embarrassed at keeping them captive and so make excuses for them?
In the British newspaper The Times, a marine mammal biologist, Naomi Rose of the Humane Society of the United States, is reported as saying that the orca's "lack of concern about killing humans could be because Tilikum was unused to having a human being in the water with him".
Rose goes on to say:
"Orca are certainly capable of aggression, as whales at SeaWorld and other parks have shown with plenty of attacks."
They wouldn't be very good predators if they weren't capable of aggression. But Rose here is referring to two previous attacks involving Tilikum. He was blamed for killing a trainer in 1991 at Sealand of the Pacific near Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, and was also involved in the death of a man in 1999.
Steve Huxter, who was head of Sealand's animal care and training department in 1991, was reported in the UK's The Guardian as saying he was "surprised" the orca had killed again. He said Tilikum was a well-behaved, balanced animal.
And the excuses for Tilikum continue. Back at Discovery News, Richard Ellis, a marine conservationist at the American Museum of Natural History, says that the whale "was not trying to eat the trainer", but believes his actions were "premeditated" and intentional. (It reminds me that dolphins have been suspected of carrying out "serial" attacks on other cetaceans.)
"[Tilikum] decided to do this as opposed to keep swimming around in circles," Ellis said. He would not speculate, though, on what the whale actually intended.
Do we really need to explain why a top predator would attack a potential prey item? Sure, orcas don't attack humans much, even in the wild. But this, says Matt Walker at the BBC, is probably because they live in cold water and don't overlap with humans much.
Last week we heard Lori Marino, a biologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, tell the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference that captive cetaceans are suffering psychological problems:
"Dolphins are sophisticated, self-aware, highly intelligent beings with individual personalities, autonomy and an inner life. They are vulnerable to tremendous suffering and psychological trauma," Marino said in a press release.
We're in a bit of a bind. If we want to keep orca in tiny pools, we might have to expect them to attack us from time to time. If we release Tilikum and long-term captive orca, like we did with Willy of Free Willy fame, we might be condemning them to loneliness and an early death.
So we'll probably continue to keep them in captivity. As the New York Times reports, "that's a big money-making animal."
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This is the third death this animal has been involved in. I say sell him to the Japanese so he can be the star in a restaurant show.
bob
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It may have just been playing with her. But an animal that weighs nearly six tons can play rough. :O
You may recall the incident with Roy Horn (of Siegfried and Roy, the animal/magic act), who had one of his tigers almost bite his head off.
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In 1991, Tilikum and two female killer whales dragged trainer Keltie Byrne underwater, drowning her in front of spectators at Sealand of the Pacific, a defunct aquarium in Victoria, British Columbia.
Acquired by SeaWorld the next year to breed with female orcas, he was involved in a second incident in July 1999 when the naked body of a man who had apparently sneaked into SeaWorld after hours to swim with the whales was found draped dead across his back.
Authorities later concluded that the man, Daniel Dukes, likely suffered hypothermia in the 55-degree water and drowned, but they said it also appeared Tilikum bit the man's body and tore off his swimming trunks after he had died.
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Killer whales are top predators. You wouldn't be surprised if a tiger lashed out at someone.
The most true statement in the whole article.
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"He's a good killer whale. He was just starting to turn his life around. He had enrolled in school to become a sushi chef, and get off the streets." ;)
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(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi360.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Foo42%2FALatchley%2Fserialkillerwhale.jpg&hash=afc33ed60a604b0946618b4ecaba01e5b42b44d9)
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personally, i hope the animals win. we exploit them ruthlessly and then work up a high dither when a basic 'industrial accident' occurs. i feel sorry for the woman who probably had deluded herself into thinking, 'he's my friend'. and probably he didn't have an 'attack' in mind-that would have resulted in a pretty well pulverized set of remains to be reclaimed. does sound like a possible sex thing-she had to be distributing pheromones, hormones and whatever into his space, and the result sounds a little like what i might expect from 6 ton aquatic foreplay. sad, but if these merchants and their accomplices are going to push the envelope w/their exhibitions, they are going to have to practice constant caution and vigilance, as well as just plain common sense.
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does sound like a possible sex thing-she had to be distributing pheromones, hormones and whatever into his space, and the result sounds a little like what i might expect from 6 ton aquatic foreplay.
so, your saying she was in heat?
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Just go out and live with the grizzly bears - they won't hurt you. ;)
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It may have just been playing with her. But an animal that weighs nearly six tons can play rough. :O
How many people get killed a year by one ton horses or cows? Animals that are domesticated (I use the term loosely).
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so, your saying she was in heat?
be interesting to know at what point she was in her cycle-human females are more regularly 'in heat' than many mammals. that may be beside the point, however as the whale may have been 'in heat'-human males of a certain age are always so.
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seriously? your gonna take the drift in this direction.
:facepalm:
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Acquired by SeaWorld the next year to breed with female orcas, he was involved in a second incident in July 1999 when the naked body of a man who had apparently sneaked into SeaWorld after hours to swim with the whales was found draped dead across his back.
Authorities later concluded that the man, Daniel Dukes, likely suffered hypothermia in the 55-degree water and drowned, but they said it also appeared Tilikum bit the man's body and tore off his swimming trunks after he had died.
.....however as the whale may have been 'in heat'-human males of a certain age are always so.
;/
seriously? your gonna take the drift in this direction.
:facepalm:
Oh yes.....yes we are..... =D
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Anyone see the Wiki for Killer Whales?
There's like 3-5 different subspecies, and they live pretty much anywhere. Very interesting read.
Hat tip to Tam for the link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orcinus#Types
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I think they should just give the serial killer whale life in prison.
Oh yes.....yes we are.....
it is possible that he was reacting to the trainer giving mixed signals,she was seen rubbing him right
before the incident-maybe she just rubbed him the wrong way.
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Ya know, that the second time a dog bites a person, it gets put down......
How many people get killed a year by one ton horses or cows?
Mostly as a result of accidents (falling off them, improper handling, etc), not as a result of them grabbing them in their mouths and dragging them under water......
Apples to oranges.....
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Ya know, that the second time a dog bites a person, it gets put down......
Mostly as a result of accidents (falling off them, improper handling, etc), not as a result of them grabbing them in their mouths and dragging them under water......
Apples to oranges.....
Bad cows become steak...yum. Bad horses become dogfood. Dogs say "yum"...
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Not the killer whales fault. I agree with jfruser on their name, and they're not called killer whales cuz they're whales.
I believe I read he was captured in the wild.
You can take the orca out of the wild, but you can't take the wild out of the orca.
If you get into the water with them, there's a chance you might get hurt.
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Ya know, that the second time a dog bites a person, it gets put down......
The second death the whale was "involved" with was only peripheral. Some idiot decided he wanted to swim with the whales, broke into the enclosure and jumped in the water. 52 degree water. No wet suit. He died of hypothermia.
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Wow! That's Phantastic!! :O
DD
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i thought that was what this was for. (http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/03/a-compressed-ga/) :angel:
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The second death the whale was "involved" with was only peripheral. Some idiot decided he wanted to swim with the whales, broke into the enclosure and jumped in the water. 52 degree water. No wet suit. He died of hypothermia.
Okay, so he's "only" killed two people, not three as originally accused.
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stay out of the pool w/the whale in it unless you are willing to risk life and limb-sad the people were killed, but no way ihold the whale responsible. otoh, the kid on 'ax men"'s daughter was killed by their rottweiler-that dog would already be history. dogs commonly share private space w/their 'family' and do not inflict fatal damage other than willfully-can't have anything like that around. oddly enough, the family had suffered an attack from another of their dogs previously(that dog now x'd), so, i'm beginning to suspect someone short a full deck there. very sad-a 4yr old.
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Wow....CorBon will load just about anything.... :O