Killer whale

“ Among all the dolphin family the most voracious and bloodthirsty is the Grampus or Orca,189 which is commonly called the “Killer Whale,” because it alone feeds on warm-blooded animals, seizing the seals with its strong, sharp, conical teeth, devouring even its own relations the porpoises, and attacking and tearing to pieces the larger whales. No lion or tiger could be more ruthless in its attacks than this large-toothed whale, which is sometimes as much as twenty-five feet long and has broad flippers. In vain even the mother walruses try to save their young ones by carrying them on their backs ”

“ The killer whale, however, has the size and inclination. Generally, it is content to capture seals, sea birds, and fishes, and it does not range too far from this prey. There have been isolated reports of killer whales attacking the gray whale. The gray whale is described as being very disturbed whenever a killer whale appears. On the coast of Siberia the gray whale will hide in very shallow water and if cornered is said to go into shock, floating at the surface, stomach up, while the killer whale bites at the tongue and flippers. ”

“ The Greenland Whale is, on the whole, an amiable animal. It seems to prefer to live at peace with its kind, and although it can make great havoc with its immense tail fin, it seemingly does so by accident rather than from viciousness.
Like all other animals the whale has its enemies, especially when young. The killer-whale and some sharks hunt and attack the young whales, as indeed they do the older ones; but the greatest enemy of all is man. For a thousand years he has systematically pursued and captured many species, until some are nearly exterminated. ”

“ The monster’s struggles were made in trying to shake itself free of this tremendous enemy, but it could not accomplish this. The killer held him by the under jaw, and hung on there, while the whale threw himself out of the water in his agony, with his great mouth open like a huge cavern, and the blood flowing so fast from the wound that the sea was dyed for a long distance round. The killer fought like a bulldog. It held on until the whale was exhausted, but they passed away from us in such a confused struggle, that a harpoon could not be fixed for an hour after we first saw them. ”

“ THE WOLF OF THE SEA Although the killer whale has no great commercial value, it is often brought in at the shore stations and figures so prominently in all deep-sea life that to omit it from any book on whaling would be a grave error.
The killer is the wolf of the sea and like the land wolves hunts in packs of twenty or more individuals which will attack and devour almost anything that swims. ”

“ Happily they floundered by just astern of the ship; but so violent were their movements, and by such a mass of foam and blood were they surrounded, that it was difficult to observe the appearance of the killer. Equally impossible would it have been to have approached the whale to harpoon him without an almost certainty of losing the boat and the lives of all her crew. We could, therefore, only hope that the whale might be conquered when still within sight, so that the boats might carry off the prize from the relentless killer. Away went the monster and his tormentor. ”

“ HOW KILLERS TEAR OUT A GRAY WHALE’S TONGUE The gray whales, as well as other large cetaceans, have only two enemies—man and one of their own kind, the orca or killer whale. Although twice the size of the killers and correspondingly strong, when one of the orcas appears the devilfish become terrified and either wildly dash for shore or turn belly up at the surface, with fins outspread, paralyzed by fright. ”

“ People who are drowned go to Killer-Whale Country. But first they go to The-One-in-the-Sea who gives them their fins and then they go into the houses of the other Killer Whales. When killer whales gather in front of a town, it is thought they are human beings who have been drowned and take this way of informing the people. ”

“ Together they fell again into the sea, while all around them was stained of a crimson hue from the blood so copiously flowing from the worried monster.
“That’s a killer!” cried old Tom. “He’ll not let go the whale till he has him in his flurry, and then he and his mates will make a feast of him. They have great strong teeth, bigger than a shark’s, and are the most voracious fish I ever saw. They bait a whale just as dogs do a wild beast, or a bull, and seldom fail to kill him if they once get hold of him.” ”

“ Stranded pygmy killer whales can be clearly distinguished from both the false killer whale and the many-toothed blackfish. In addition to the differences discussed above, the following are key differences between the pygmy and false killer whales:
Pygmy killer whales can be distinguished from many-toothed blackfish on the basis of the second species' larger number of teeth. ”

“ The killers never hurt a man. Time after time haye boats been stove in or smashed into splinters by a whale, either by an accidental blow from his head or a sudden lateral sweep of his monstrous flukes, and the crew left struggling in the water or clinging to the oars and pieces of wreckage; and the killers have swum up to, looked at, and smelt them, but never have they touched a man with intent to do him harm. And wherever the killers are, the sharks are not, for Jack Shark dreads a killer as the devil is said to dread holy water. ”

“ It is smaller than the larger varieties of true whale, but it has immense jaws and a wide gullet, and lives not on whale food but on seals and penguins, and it is conceivable that it has on occasions accommodated a man; though whether it ever let one go again is a different matter. The killer is certainly an evil-looking monster. Before we had entered deeply into the pack we saw numbers of them gliding about us, driven smoothly forward by almost imperceptible movements of their powerful flukes, the downward strokes of which produce small whirlpools on the surface of the water. ”

“ The whaling season is extremely short and as soon as the yearly quota has been reached, all countries must stop. Naturally every country tries to get as many whales of the total as possible. Once a whale is killed, it is hauled alongside, and the body cavity is inflated with compressed air to make the whale buoyant. It should be remembered that the whales which are now being processed are the “wrong” whales and they would otherwise sink. The whale is then flagged, lighted, and a radio transmitter secured to it, and it is cast adrift while the killer boat continues to search for more victims. ”

“ One of them has been known to take a full-grown dead whale that the whalemen had in tow, grasp it in his tremendous jaws, and carry it to the bottom, in spite of its captors. One does not have to believe an old writer who says that a killer has been seen with a seal under each flipper, one under the dorsal fin, and a third in his mouth. ”

“ The killer is a mammal, allied to the porpoise. It attacks the whale with great ferocity, clinging to its flesh by its strong teeth. The whale rolls over and over, throwing the killer into the air, and sailors report it as a thresher. As a matter of fact the thresher very rarely if ever attacks any animal except small fish. It is said to use its tail in rounding up and destroying schools of herring and sardines. Fossil teeth of thresher-sharks of some species are found from the Miocene. ”

“ At the sight of the former the whale seems agitated in an extraordinary manner, leaping from the water as if with affright; wherever it appears, the whale perceives it at a distance, and flies from it in an opposite direction, [18] and having no instrument of defence except its tail, it endeavors to strike it; but the Sword Fish is as active as the other is strong, and easily eludes the blow. It often cuts the whale in such a manner as to colour the water all around with blood. The Killer is a more destructive enemy, with strong and very powerful teeth. ”

“ They are gregarious in habits and formerly hauled up in herds on the islands or on remote and inaccessible beaches of the mainland. On shore they are sluggish, having none of the alertness shown by many other seals. They lie supine on the sand and permit a man to walk quietly up and touch them without showing signs of fear. When attacked by sealers or otherwise alarmed, however, they become panic-stricken and make ungainly efforts to escape, but quickly become exhausted by the exertion necessary to move their great 433 bodies. Their only natural enemy appears to be the killer whale. ”

“ A male killer was taken at the same time by Captain Hurum, who told me that in the animal’s death flurry it had thrown up two great chunks of flesh.
Captain Melsom brought a gray whale to the station one day and I found that the tongue was almost gone. He said he had passed a school of killers in the morning and later, after steaming about fifteen miles, had killed the devilfish. A short time afterward, a long distance away, he saw the fins of a school of killers which were coming at full speed straight for the ship. ”

“ False killer whales are a social form and may occur in herds of up to at least 100 individuals. They often jump clear of the water and frequently ride the bow waves of vessels. They are the only "blackfish" which are known to do so. False killer whales feed primarily on squid and large fishes and are notorious for their habit of stealing fish from the lines of fishermen. The large prominent teeth may be visible on a swimming animal. ”

“ And the sperm whale generally takes to flight when pursued. In fact, most of the accidents that happen to whalemen occur when the wounded monster is lashing the water in blind terror and agony.
The whale has three bitter enemies, much smaller, but much bolder than himself, and of these he is terribly afraid. They are: the swordfish, the thrasher, and the killer. The first of these, the sword-fish, has a strong straight horn or sword projecting from his snout, with which he boldly attacks and pierces the whale. The thrasher is a strong fish, twenty feet long, and of great weight. ”

“ An orca probably could not kill a large whale alone, but single individuals undoubtedly cause all the fin whales great annoyance by biting off the tips of their flukes and flippers; at least two-thirds of the whales brought to the stations had the flukes or flippers injured. I have a photograph of a young finback whale with the flipper torn and mangled and plainly showing a killer’s teeth marks. ”

“ The killers do not confine their attention entirely to the tongue for almost every whale which was brought in had the tips and posterior edges 199of the fins and flukes more or less torn; in several specimens fresh teeth marks were plainly visible where the fin had been shredded as the whale drew it out of the orca’s mouth.
Although none of the gray whales exhibited teeth marks on other parts of the body, undoubtedly some of them are killed by the orcas. A female killer which was brought in had several pieces of flesh in its stomach, besides a strip of whalebone three inches long. ”

“ Killers will apparently eat anything that swims and fish, birds, seals, walrus, whales, and porpoises are all equally acceptable. Their capacity is almost unbelievable, and there is a record of thirteen porpoises and fourteen seals being taken from the stomach of a twenty-one-foot specimen.
220Dr. Wilson speaks of killers in the Antarctic as follows:
Of the whales, the most prominent of all are the Killers, or Orca whales, which scour the seas and the pack-ice in hundreds to the terror of seals and penguins. The Killer is a powerful piebald whale of some fifteen feet in length. ”

“ Sometimes they seize each other by the back just behind the dorsal fin, but there are no tooth marks on any of them and it is probably done in play. The indications are that they are altogether amiable and inoffensive toward each other. The only species of porpoise destructive to its kind is the well-known “Killer” (Orca gladiator) .
Our porpoises were observed mating in January, and again in March and April. It is possible that they will breed in captivity if their lives are not shortened by indoor life. ”

“ The Killer is never hunted. I never heard what sort of oil he has. Exception might be taken to the name bestowed upon this whale, on the ground of its indistinctness. For we are all killers, on land and on sea; Bonapartes and Sharks included.
BOOK II. (Octavo) , CHAPTER V. (Thrasher) .—This gentleman is famous for his tail, which he uses for a ferule in thrashing his foes. He mounts the Folio whale’s back, and as he swims, he works his passage by flogging him; as some schoolmasters get along in the world by a similar process. Still less is known of the Thrasher than of the Killer. ”

“ The sperm whale is probably the only marine animal which is more than a match for a herd of killers. The enormous lower jaw of a sperm whale presents an array of teeth even more formidable than those of the orca, and I greatly doubt if the killer could succeed in terrifying this whale; it is significant that the flukes and flippers of sperms are practically always free from injuries. ”

“ When the orcas gathered the whales turned belly up and made not the slightest attempt to get away. A killer would put its snout against the closed lips of the devilfish and endeavor to force the mouth open and its own head inside. This extraordinary method of attack was corroborated by Captain Johnson, who 198had been hunting the same school of gray whales, and, moreover, by all the whalemen at the station, who had witnessed it upon many other occasions.
Cutting through the body of a gray whale. The thick layer of blubber surrounding the red meat is well shown. ”