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Comment by Tiktaalik | Hacker News Reader

> In line with this, several decades of observation show that orcas are not naturally violent towards humans. There are no recorded cases of a wild orca killing a human.

In a recent BBC Attenborough documentary (I think Frozen Planet) there was a sequence where they showed teams of killer whales swiftly swimming just under the surface to create a wave in an attempt to knock a seal off an ice flow so that they could eat it.

After the main part of the documentary they had a "making of" component that showed how the film crew got the shots and made the film, and they showed the killer whales trying to do the same trick on the tiny boat the camera men were on to try to knock them into the water.

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I apologize in advance for this sounding morbid but I'd allege that the reason there are no recorded cases could be that there are no remains and thus a person that may have been killed by an Orca could still be a missing person case without evidence to support any particular theory.

I have personally swum with wild Orcas. They seemed to asses me then discount me as food fairly quickly.

This is not an assessment I'd be interesting in undergoing.

Is it because humans have less fat than seals etc, that they are not interested in us as food?

Attacks on humans by Orcas happens. Its that they do not eat humans, once they realize its us, they let go and swim away. They need to taste us first, especially if none of the members of group haven't tasted or interacted with humans before.

Same with most sharks. They have to bite you to know what you are, most shark attacks are quick strikes and then they let the victim go.

Really? Wow, a lot to learn in this thread!

Seems like we might not be very palatable for many creatures (or are just too bizarre for them to eat).

We just don't taste like the food they usually eat. Someone who's never had kimchi, or any spicy food, might react similarly on the first bite.

Is that different to how such sharks usually hunt larger prey? I could imagine it being a good technique, bite retreat and wait for the prey to weaken/die; rather than having a thrashing, struggling creature next to your head.

They generally don't let go if it is prey.

Good to know! Now which appendage should I offer for the tasting menu....

The smallest finger - hopefully its the one in your foot ;) But to be serious, I wonder if cutting yourself would be enough for them to taste you and go away or if it would have opposite effect.

There is only one way to find out.

If you're ever in a situation where you get a choice of which finger to lose don't chose your little finger. You want to keep your index (or first) finger, and your little (or forth) finger, and you probably want to keep your ring (or third) finger.

A bunch of stuff becomes much harder if you don't have a little finger.

In other words, choose the middle finger?

Doing pottery I primarily use my middle fingers and thumbs ... could you share your reasoning?

Your grip becomes much weaker.

Is it weaker or just more difficult to apply the strength? I can crush things between middle-finger and thumb more easily than between little-finger and thumb suggesting that the grip is stronger in the first case. Not trying to be pedantic; just interested in body mechanics.

It's not just that they don't eat us, it's also that they haven't killed us for other reasons.

For example, a human happening to stray close to a young orca might be confused as a threat to it, which could trigger an attack by a parent. Yet, despite there being lots of orcas in the ocean, no violent altercation between a wild orca and a human has led to a human death.

That this hasn't happened even once is remarkable, especially given the massive size and strength of orca. Other large mammals often kill humans, and not just as food, for example, hippos.

I don't think we know exactly why orcas have never killed humans, but I would guess their intelligence has something to do with it.

One explanation could be that Orcas and Humans simply don't come in contact that often.

Orcas are common where I live in British Columbia, but you really don't have that many swimmers around in contrast to tropical areas. Additionally, the local resident orcas eat salmon and I don't think they'd consider humans to be a potential food source. Transient orcas eat seals, and I could imagine them confusing a human with a seal just as great white sharks do. Maybe the migration patterns of transient orcas don't line up with when and where people swim.

That's certainly a factor. However, orca are not limited to cold climates, even if they are found more there. Their natural range includes all oceans,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whale#Range_and_habitat

and they can encounter humans not just when the humans are swimming - which is rare in cold climates - but also when they are fishing.

Furthermore, there are also practically no cases of other dolphins than orca killing humans, and human-dolphin encounters are not that rare. For example, even in the times of ancient Greece, dolphins were known and considered very friendly,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin#In_history_and_religio...

Other dolphins are of course significantly smaller than orca, but still very powerful when in the water.

I don't think there is an obvious answer for why wild orca have never been seen killing a human, and practically no other dolphin either. It's an interesting mystery.

An additional reason could be how they find they prey.

I’ve read that most of the time shark attacks are somewhat accidental with the shark biting to find out what something is, but not continuing the attack.

It could be that the echolocation abilities of toothed whales provides them with a superior ability to discern a human from their typical favoured prey and they don't make mistakes.

It would be ambitious for a dolphin to kill a large animal like a human and that’s since that’s not their typical hunting behaviour, I can understand why dolphin attacks are not common.

On other hand an transient orca would often eat human sized animals. Even if I’m right that echolocation would allow an orca to discern between a seal and a human, why wouldn’t they give the human a bite to see if they tasted any good? It is pretty weird mystery that there have been no recorded attacks on humans.

Perhaps humans smell bad.

Are hippos a good example? They are crazy territorial, have a nasty temper and will take on any animal that stray into their area. Orcas aren't territorial.

Aspey Cherry relates a tale on Scott's Antarctic mission when they dragged a horse from the ice in a desperate tug-of-war with the humans and ate it.

http://www.davidspilmanfinebooks.com/pages/books/13027/aspey...

You don't have to pay $350 for the print version, it's on Gutenberg

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14363

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