Center for Whale Research: How Smart Are Orcas?

Thursday, July 2, 2009

How Smart Are Orcas?

In order to do the subject of killer whale intelligence justice, we will need to broaden the discussion to include other species of cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises), as well as to look at the ocean environment in which they live. The subject can get fairly technical and dry, but we will try to keep it interesting and entertaining as much as possible!

As you view these videos, please keep in mind that orcas are actually large dolphins as you enjoy this fun introduction to the subject.

By all the ways that scientists measure intelligence, orcas are not far behind us, and we will examine what that means over the next month.

What does it sound like Luna, an orphan killer whale, was trying to imitate here?

2 comments:

AnonymousJanuary 20, 2010 at 8:09 PM
amazing. is this creature trying to imitate the sound of a motor boat?
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AnonymousMarch 3, 2010 at 11:28 AM
He is imitating a boat motor!! Luna was so smart. I read that this whale badly wanted to communicate with humans and anytime he saw humans he saw them on boats so he associated the two and thought the humans communicated by making that sound which is a sound of a motor. BTW Luna was killed by a motor... =(
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Some Background Information on the Orca Captivity Issue from Howard Garrett

"In 1965 a young male orca was captured in the town of Namu, BC. He was sold to Ted Griffin and towed in a pen to Seattle, where he was promoted extensively and made into a worldwide celebrity. Namu died after 11 months of captivity, but by then Sea World had captured their first Shamu from Puget Sound and the revenues from killer whale shows started a stampede to capture and sell orcas from Washington.

For ten years the captures were led by Don Goldsberry and Ted Griffin, who became public enemies after they tried to violently obstruct news coverage of their operations. They caught over 100 in that time, but claimed there were plenty of orcas here so the captures would make little difference on a population level. There was no science to dispute that until the mid-1970's when Canada and the US contracted with marine biologists Mike Bigg and Ken Balcomb, respectively, to conduct a survey to find out how many orcas there were in Washington and BC. They found only a few hundred, mostly north of Vancouver Island, meaning the captures had removed about a third of those resident to Washington waters.

Goldsberry, Griffin, Sea World, and the marine park industry in general disputed the scientists' findings and methods because they didn't like the results, and thus began a deep animosity toward field researchers on the part of the marine park industry. That dislike and disregard for the natural history of orcas that Bigg and Balcomb and many others revealed over the years became part of the marine park culture and continues to this day. The longevity of orcas, for example, was known from field research to be many decades longer than what marine parks told the public in their educational materials.

Needless to say, any organization that criticizes the captivity industry or that attempts to rehab, retire or release captives receives special scorn from the industry (which includes many people on Keiko's care team)."

"... and that's unfortunate because there could be some areas of agreement and cooperation if we could trust one another's information. But for those within the industry survival of the business is often more important than survival of the orcas, so rather than defend against these innuendos, unless there are disputed facts I'll try to give the background for the argument and leave it at that." From Comments by Howard Garrett

Thursday, July 2, 2009

How Smart Are Orcas?

2 comments:

Candace Calloway Whiting