breaching orca (#2 of 5): female J16 Slick, born 1972 by Andrew Reding, on Flickr

Humans as a species have a strange tendency to grow attached to other species that are inherently not only capable, but willing, to kill us. And always, simply because some part of our collective consciousness misfires and decides that these animals are cute. So it is with Orcas. I know I’ve written about them before but thanks to Tumblr I came across their hunting methods and prey and I simply HAD to do another post.

I mean look at this!

That is a whale, purposely beaching itself in order to get at a tasty morsel that it could also get at in the water but stands a bigger chance of losing there. Let me reiterate; that is a creature willingly putting itself in a situation designed to kill it just for the heck of it. Sounds almost human when you put it like that, doesn’t it? But that’s not all. As much as we fear the great white sharks, orcas consider them as food. They’ve discovered, that flipping sharks and rays on their backs is a good way to immobilize them and put them into a coma-like state. Then the orcas simply wait until the shark drowns and eat it. Not only that, but orcas have also been known to eat moose. To be fair, that usually happens when said moose are crossing waters between islands. But still, think about it; no animal is safe from the wolves of the sea. And these are the creatures we keep in petting zoos?

Orca Breach by chasedekker, on Flickr