2muchcoffeeman
Well-Known Member
At least, that's one potential conclusion. They could also be trying to advance orca science and understanding of humans — xenoanthropology, you might say.
SEATTLE — Wild orcas on more than 30 occasions in four oceans have attempted to share their prey with people, potentially to develop relationships with humans, researchers have found.
In each of the instances recorded over two decades, orcas approached a person within a length of the orca's body, and dropped freshly hunted prey in front of the human, then waited for a response, according to a paper reporting the behavior published Monday in the Journal of Comparative Psychology.
Orcas of every age tried to share their prey, and just about everything was on the menu: sea otter, harbor seal, common murre, gray whale, green turtle, eagle ray, starfish, jellyfish, on and on.
Orcas are the ocean's top predator, and their brains are second only to modern humans in terms of their size in relation to their body. Their capacity for advanced communications and cognitive, social and emotional intelligence is well known. Prey sharing is common in orca culture.
So just what are the orcas doing, offering food to people?
Researchers ruled out play, because the incidents were short, lasting only about 30 seconds. And it's mostly young orcas that play, and orcas of every age offered food. So it seems what is going on is exploration, the scientists surmised: The orcas are curious to see what happens if they offer us food.
In most instances, the researchers ignored the offer. But when some took the food and offered it back, the orca either passed it back again, or took it and shared it with its relatives.
Orcas shared their food in all kinds of ways: dropping it in front of divers underwater, serving it up at the surf line along shore and by approaching boats. The attempts only counted in the research paper if the orca on its own volition approached a person, came within its body length and clearly was offering food. Attempts were not counted if a person had approached the orca. …
No one should be surprised, said Carl Safina, author of multiple books on animal intelligence, and founding president of The Safina Center. Orcas are the largest dolphin, and dolphins are well known to be extraordinarily smart, he noted.
"What I think in a sense is more impressive is that humans basically give no credit to any other creature for having a mind," Safina said. Yet many other creatures, including orcas, understand implicitly that humans have minds. "So they understand us, and give us more credit there, they seem to comprehend the world better than we do, in our self-imposed estrangement."
This loneliness is a specifically Western affliction, Safina said, noting many Indigenous societies worldwide understand themselves to be in relation with a vast intelligence of other nonhuman beings. "They see the world as one big family, it's only Western humans who continually ask or are afraid to say that other creatures are even conscious," Safina said.
https://www.adn.com/nation-world/20...een-trying-to-feed-people-new-research-shows/In each of the instances recorded over two decades, orcas approached a person within a length of the orca's body, and dropped freshly hunted prey in front of the human, then waited for a response, according to a paper reporting the behavior published Monday in the Journal of Comparative Psychology.
Orcas of every age tried to share their prey, and just about everything was on the menu: sea otter, harbor seal, common murre, gray whale, green turtle, eagle ray, starfish, jellyfish, on and on.
Orcas are the ocean's top predator, and their brains are second only to modern humans in terms of their size in relation to their body. Their capacity for advanced communications and cognitive, social and emotional intelligence is well known. Prey sharing is common in orca culture.
So just what are the orcas doing, offering food to people?
Researchers ruled out play, because the incidents were short, lasting only about 30 seconds. And it's mostly young orcas that play, and orcas of every age offered food. So it seems what is going on is exploration, the scientists surmised: The orcas are curious to see what happens if they offer us food.
In most instances, the researchers ignored the offer. But when some took the food and offered it back, the orca either passed it back again, or took it and shared it with its relatives.
Orcas shared their food in all kinds of ways: dropping it in front of divers underwater, serving it up at the surf line along shore and by approaching boats. The attempts only counted in the research paper if the orca on its own volition approached a person, came within its body length and clearly was offering food. Attempts were not counted if a person had approached the orca. …
No one should be surprised, said Carl Safina, author of multiple books on animal intelligence, and founding president of The Safina Center. Orcas are the largest dolphin, and dolphins are well known to be extraordinarily smart, he noted.
"What I think in a sense is more impressive is that humans basically give no credit to any other creature for having a mind," Safina said. Yet many other creatures, including orcas, understand implicitly that humans have minds. "So they understand us, and give us more credit there, they seem to comprehend the world better than we do, in our self-imposed estrangement."
This loneliness is a specifically Western affliction, Safina said, noting many Indigenous societies worldwide understand themselves to be in relation with a vast intelligence of other nonhuman beings. "They see the world as one big family, it's only Western humans who continually ask or are afraid to say that other creatures are even conscious," Safina said.
