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For modern humans, empathy is not a universally desirable trait, since it reeks of vulnerability in an ever-competitive world. For killer whales, empathy is an evolutionary advantage.
Robson Bight,
Robson bight near johnstone strait wher or as go to rub their tummies on the beach rocks
Canadian government for the orcas’ use. Every summer the unique qualities of these rocks draw Northern Residents to these waters, where they can be observed rubbing their tummies and bodies on the time-worn rocks that comprise the beach at the Bight. No one is quite certain why they do this, but it appears from observing them that they enjoy the massaging effect of the stones.
several pods were about to converge in the waters near Kaikash Creek.
Kaikash creek
Blackney Pass, a passage between Hanson and West Cracroft islands directly across Johnstone Strait (about two miles) from my camp.
Blackney pass btwn Hanson and West cracroft islands
wound up with nearly two hours’ worth of recorded orca sounds from that afternoon. It was lovely on the water, although after a time I had to begin paddling back southward before the current carried me all the way to Telegraph Cove. The whole time, I was listening to a cacophonic chorus of orcas chattering away, or whatever it was they were doing—singing, perhaps? Or perhaps something more mundane, such as talking about the currents? Or, more likely, communicating in a conceptual way that we cannot comprehend.
Whatever is going on among orcas and their vocalizations (and we don’t really have a clear understanding of this at all) the one thing that is self-evident is that this is their primary means of communicating with each other. What they are communicating and how remain grand mysteries. It is probably the most tantalizing aspect of what we know, and don’t know, about killer whales, because if orcas are actually conceptualizing abstract ideas at a high level, and perhaps even retaining long-term intergenerational memories, if these communications really are a language, then the
Orcas language lon term intergenerational
The stereotyped calls with which they communicate are fairly complex by animal standards but have serious limitations, if judged on the basis of human communications, since they appear to have an extremely small vocabulary.
Apparently small vocabulary
notably limitless expression, a discrete combinatorial system (using a system of symbols whose coagulation forms disparate meanings), recursion (the internal embedding of syntax), and a memory system, as well as the creation of new sounds, arbitrariness, and the ability to convey information based on perceiving in advance what the listener already knows (called “social cognitive aptitude”). As Justin Gregg has persuasively demonstrated, bottlenose dolphins score reasonably well on many of these counts (cumulatively, they score a 20, about the same as chimpanzees, on a scale in which humans
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10 traits that constitute language
However, whether this is the case for killer whales is an open question, since they have been studied very little in laboratory settings; most studies of orca calls have been in the wild, and most of them have focused on social aspects of the communications without delving into structure and meaning, since it is so difficult to observe their underwater behavior, especially in relation to their communications. If orcas are only slightly larger versions of bottlenose dolphins, as they are frequently viewed, then their communications are also of limited scientific interest. If, instead, they are
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Orcas to dolphins as human to chimpanzee? Observation of language complicated
(orca brains are not only four times larger but a good deal more complex than bottlenose brains) scientists have observed an important qualitative difference between dolphin and orca communications. Orcas communicate in a socially structured way. Whereas dolphins collectively seem to chatter willy nilly with little regard to one another, orcas both captive and wild are generally more polite. They tend to wait for each other to finish calling before making their own calls. Orca call exchanges thus take on at least the surface appearance of conversations, even if only crude informational
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Orca brains 4 times larger and more complex than bottlenose
Exchanges more polite and interactive like conversation
idiosyncratic sounds, the meanings of which are utterly unknown. This has implications, moreover, for the linguistic possibilities of orca communications, since the existence of conversation also suggests the possibility of exchanging ideas.
Idiosyncratic sounds and appearance of communicating ideas
Orca calls are in fact very complex and acoustically rich, suggesting that information could be imbedded within them in ways that are imperceptible to human ears, just as the peculiar sounds of a computer modem, heard over a phone, sound like mere repetitive screeches but are, in fact, carrying signals rich with information. You just need the right processor to translate it all.
Orca language my not be entirely perceivable by humans consider analogy if a modem that requires the right processor
Dolphins have shown a clear ability to learn a simple human language and to comprehend syntax, but their poor scores when tested for infinite expression make it seem unlikely that they use what we call a language.
Dolphins learn human vocabulary and syntax but limited expression
Orca vocalizations typically are a fairly limited set of calls, usually comprised of a single rising and falling tone that is specific to each orca’s familial pod, with similar tones appearing in sequence, repeated between individuals in an apparent call-and-response behavior. These are accompanied by idiosyncratic whistles, grunts, and squawks. The meanings of each of these sounds is utterly unknown, since no one has ever been able to track wild orcas’ underwater behaviors in relation to the sounds they are making. Even among captive orcas, there has been nothing to indicate that these are in
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Orca vocalizations
All told, the scientists who collect these sounds typically have found about forty different sounds that wild orcas will make in their social interactions with other orcas, and these sounds are usually specific to a single family group. This appears to be a fairly limited vocabulary, at least on first hearing. Any linguist hoping to catch glimpses of language therein may well be disappointed. Nonetheless, the distinctive social-group-oriented nature of the calls is deep enough that even scientists are comfortable referring to them as “dialects.”
Orca dialects
About 40 common sounds
beacon-like quality to the calls; their frequency during travel and foraging suggests that these calls let the orcas all know the positions of their fellow pod members and perhaps enable them to coordinate hunting behaviors. Another purpose may be simply reinforcing pod identities,
Orca sounds appatently
1 beacon, locator
2 coordinate hunting behavior
3 familial, pod identity...dialects
most seasoned analyst of orca communications is Canadian whale scientist John Ford, the man whose research established definitively that not only do orcas use calls for communication, but that they have dialects that reflect their sophisticated social organizations. Ford has spent years analyzing orca calls
John ford orca linguist
We don’t have all the answers. But I’ve yet to see any evidence of representational signals—the features of what we call language. I think it’s pretty much a here and now communication system.”
different repertoires of the calls that are used by these groups are most importantly kinship flags, or badges—they convey really sophisticated information on the genealogy of the individual and his group, and play an important role in keeping the group together, but also in keeping them from becoming inbred, by basically encouraging cross-breeding outside the dialect group,”
Lance Barrett-Lennard did, looking at echolocation differences between residents and transients, where he was able to plot the amount of echolocation activity against increasing group sizes in residents. It’s not a linear relationship at all. “So the simplest explanation for that is that the proportion of echolocation activity decreases with increasing group size, so it would suggest that not everybody is swimming around clicking independently—they’re making use of each other’s clicks. Or they’re just following the animals that are doing the clicking.
They use eachothers clicking to echolocate
There well may be more to orcas’ vocalizations than the simple communication we hear. Scientists who have analyzed the nature of the calls say that, as with the echolocation bullets, these are very dense and rich sounds. Even within the range of orcas who are repeating their stereotyped family calls, there are tremendous variations in tones, in intensity, and in volume. There are also variations in emotional content.
More to orca comms than merts the eye including emotional content
Northern Residents make began picking up the odd appearance of calls from other pods among whales that would socialize with those pods and not only when those other pods were present. At odd times well away from those pods, orcas were heard making their stereotyped calls to one another. “Mimicking another group’s calls could be a way of referring to that group … or of communicating something about that group to one’s own family members,”
Orca mi.icry
Usi g another pods sounds might be a way of referring to that pod
little whale named Luna.
Story of luna
They would go out in pairs—most of the time, it was two women—in an official-looking boat and try to remind boaters not to interact with Luna when either they or he approached the other. This turned out to be much easier said than done. Luna was actually very aggressive about seeking out human contact, and some of his favorite contact, as time went on, was with these stewards. If the DFO officers approached boats that were getting close to Luna, he would actually get in between them and force
not in the same harmonic range used by sea lions, but were instead in the range used by killer whales. Some of these barks were recorded when there were no sea lions observable, and only Luna was present. It was apparent that he was imitating their barks, perhaps calling to them, as though they too kept the lonely young whale company.
Luna imitated sea lions
He was particularly fond of pushing Parfit’s little inflatable boat around and sometimes played with it at the dock. One day Parfit filmed Luna playing with a small aluminum outboard boat at the dock, placing his rostrum next to the hull at the boat’s rear, near the little motor, and imitating it loudly, using his blowhole like a pair of lips: “Brrrrrr-r-r-r-rrrr!” Funny thing: it really did sound just like an outboard boat engine.
Luna imitated outboard engine sounds
before Luna had appeared, a tribal chief named Albert Maquinna had passed away, and Maquinna had told friends and relatives beforehand that he planned to return to the tribe as a kakawin, a killer whale. Orcas are not particularly common inside the Sound, so Luna’s appearance was taken as a certain sign that the chief had lived up to his word. The tribe by treaty right had some say in the matter. They approved of the plan to reunite Luna with his home pod and made clear that they would fight to prevent the whale from ever being placed in captivity.
Chief promised to return as orca
Tribe believed this was luna
went for eight more days. Luna would visit the sea pen, but he was never deeply interested in it. The singing humans, who showed up every day in their canoes, held much more attraction for him.
fed throughout, meaning that when it came to finding food whatever he had lost as a pod member, he was able to compensate by hunting opportunistically (there was evidence he ate all kinds of salmon, unlike his family, which is known to hunt Chinook salmon almost exclusively). During that time, it became clear that for his social needs he had replaced his orca family with the variety of humans he encountered. In the process, he opened a window into the world of killer whales for all the humans who came into contact with him to peer through. For those who were fortunate enough to get that
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exploded out of the water beside them. Luna loved to play pranks like this, loved to surprise his human family. However, these humans hurried to shore, worried that they were not supposed to interact with the whale. He followed them there and lingered in the water next to their boat, peering up at them. “There was such consciousness there, such deliberate intent to connect; it was just this unforgettable moment,”
one convinced them that “maybe he had empathy.” This realization rubs against old-fashioned scientific approaches that insist on never projecting human traits onto animal subjects—anthropomorphizing them—but Parfit believed that empathy was only logical, considering the highly social nature of orcas in the wild. “That seemed like a very human thing to expect in an animal,” he later wrote in his deeply felt account of the Luna saga, The Lost Whale. “But not really. Scientific studies have shown that something like empathy is at work in several species. And when I thought about the social nature
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“We’re looking at these [animals’] lives and we describe them as being inferior to us, when in fact their lives are so rich and complex and their awareness of living is so present,”
It was an apt name. Like many calves, she was playful and curious. She kept heading in the direction of my kayak, and her mother kept intervening, distracting her to other, more appropriate interests, such as salmon. They appeared, in fact, to be hunting; Polaris was lingering near the surface, seemingly intent on her prey, and then she made a quick turn and disappeared beneath the surface. Star followed, and all was quiet for a moment, except for the two large males who lurked on the perimeter, like playground guards patrolling. Then Polaris and her baby burst together out of the water,
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Paris and Star
father with a new baby, now grown; how she had craved the physical contact, how she had loved to crawl all over me, and how I had loved it in return. However, that kind of bonding occurs at a visceral level, and it’s universal to humans and animals alike. Polaris and Star were being profoundly human and profoundly wild as well. For me, at least in that moment, experiencing that kind of deep common ground with a creature in the wild did not make them more human. It reminded me, instead, that we are all animals, and that is not always a bad thing. Love and affection, loyalty and kindness,
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Polaris and Star mother and daughter nuzzling
Natsilane was an ancient tribesman who faced a problem that remains ubiquitous even today: how to fit in with the family you marry into, especially your brothers-in-law. The problem was that Natsilane was the finest hunter in the tribe into which he had married, and everyone knew it. Originally from another village, he had joined his wife’s tribe to make her happy. However, his skills at hunting sea lions, a Tlingit meat staple, were widely renowned. He was known to be the first to leap from the canoes onto the rocks where the big brutes would haul themselves out, and he often accounted for
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Natsilane a great hunter creates orcas
orcas—are seen as predecessors to humans, not as creations of humans. Just as the Kwakwaka’wakw of western British Columbia believed that the first humans were killer whale spirits who emerged from the sea and transformed into men,
Native lore that orca is human predecessor
used to be a beautiful white wolf; Noo Halidzoks
I used to be a beautiful white wolf...
To all of these tribes, orcas are ancient creatures with immense spiritual powers. Orcas are the rulers of the ocean and the embodiment of its power. As it turns out, modern evolutionary science generally agrees with this.
Killer whales, the scientists tell us, have been around at least six million years and probably longer. As with all marine mammals, they are ultimately descended from land mammals. Native myths often associated killer whales with wolves; several myths describe them as
Orca descended from land mammals
One of the land ancestors of all whales is a cloven-hoofed dog-like carnivore who lived during the Paleocene and Eocene periods, finally becoming extinct in the early Oligocene (that is, between about 62 and 30 million years ago) called the Mesonychid. Despite its appearance, however, it was not an ancestor of modern wolves. One of its evolutionary offshoots, called artiodactyls, were even-toed, hoofed creatures whose descendants would come to include pigs, cows, deer, and hippopotamuses. These last are considered the land mammals closest in relation to modern whales.
Mesonychid land ancestor if whales
offshoot of the artiodactyls was the first proto-whale, called the Pakicetus, although it did not look remotely like a whale. It was a furry little dog-sized creature, a carnivore that wandered the swampy coastline of the old Indian subcontinent, near modern-day Pakistan, during the early-to-middle Eocene period, between about 50 to 49 million years ago. The Pakicetus evidently hunted smaller creatures that lived in the swamp, including both fish and land creatures alike. It was a lousy swimmer, with heavy, compact bones that it used for ballast, and it was also not a fast runner. However, it
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Pakicetus protowhale
was this latter trait that it passed on to the next descendant in the line to modern-day whales, a creature that could both swim and walk called the Ambulocetus.
Ambulocetus
Protocetidea
Pritocetidea
Some in the line were strange-looking, none more so than the Basilosauridae, who appeared in the middle-to-late Eocene periods (about 38 million to 40 million years ago) and were found in all the world’s oceans. They were probably the first fully aquatic cetaceans. They were also extraordinarily long creatures, with spines that extended fifty feet and longer, while their limbs shrank to just the tiniest vestigial rear feet and small forelimbs near the head that scientists speculate were used
Basilisauridae
creatures that both branches of the modern whale family evolved. Odontocetes (toothed whales) are the most clearly descended from the Basilosaurus, with early forms appearing in the middle Oligocene through the middle Miocene periods (25 million to 11 million years ago). These creatures, called Squalodon, displayed the first appearance of echolocation faculties, although they appear to have been fairly crude.
mysticetes would emerge. None of them appear to display echolocation capabilities, which are unnecessary, since their diet is comprised of food that floats or is at the ocean floor and does not require hunting or prey selection. (Worth noting: these whales do produce long-range calls at extremely low frequencies that could be a form of echolocation.)
Mysticetes baleen whales and echolocation
extinct about 11 million years ago, in the middle Miocene, an explosion of other toothed whales, including the belugas, narwhals, beaked whales, and porpoises, emerged. The dolphins, part of the same shift, made the biggest splash of all. Delphinidae are the largest, most diverse and most widespread of all the cetaceans, representing 36 species currently surviving, including dolphins, pilot whales, and killer whales. All of them possess some form of echolocation capacity, and all are carnivorous
earliest fossil records of Orcinus orca date back about five and a half million years, suggesting they have been around at least six million years and probably longer. In those six million years, orcas have been largely undisputed atop the oceanic food chain. They have been phenomenally successful over all those eons; they reside in every ocean on the planet and are the apex predator in each one of them. They have no predators themselves.
Orcinus Orcas evolved at least 6 million years ago
Canadian whale researcher named Michael Bigg, sometime in the 1970s scientists first began realizing that there might be what they call “speciation,” the divvying up into individual species, going on among killer whales. It was Bigg who had pioneered the use of photo identification, focusing on the dorsal fins and white “saddle patches”
