1- Hi, it's Danni.
2As an ocean expert, I've had the privilege of seeing some pretty awesome marine life.
3Like once I was filming a video in Puget Sound, Washington
4and I observed a pair of orcas in the distance.
5In case you don't know, orcas are what a lot of people call killer whales.
6The orcas stayed far away for a long time, just minding their own business,
7and then all of a sudden one of them made a dash for our boat.
8It was coming super fast, and I have to admit I was getting a little nervous.
9But then, right at the last second,
10it twisted on its side and dove under our boat.
11But before it did, I could see one of its big eyes staring back at me before it disappeared.
12It was amazing.
13Orcas are my absolute favorite animals on the planet,
14and they have been since I was six years old.
15Someone named Akash has a question about orcas.
16Let's give Akash a call now.
17- Hi, Danni.
18- Hi, Akash.
19- I have a question for you.
20Are killer whales really dangerous?
21- That's a great question.
22With a nickname like killer whales, orcas can sound pretty dangerous.
23They're faster, they're stronger, and way bigger than us.
24They're almost as long and heavy as a school bus,
25and orcas are amazing hunters too.
26They hunt in groups called pods, and they even plan out their attacks.
27They're such good hunters that no creature in the ocean wants to mess with them.
28Not even sharks.
29In fact, there are stories of orcas hunting great white sharks and catching them easily.
30So if orcas are dangerous animals to things like sharks,
31they could be dangerous to humans too, right?
32But are they?
33Before I go on, I'm curious.
34What do you think?
35Do you think killer whales are dangerous to humans?
36I'm not sure what you answered but you have to admit,
37with all that size and power, orcas can be pretty intimidating.
38Just ask 12-year-old Ellis Miller.
39He came face to face with some orcas on a vacation in Alaska a few years ago.
40There he was at the beach, just splashing around in some shallow water,
41when an orca started speeding toward him.
42The orca got closer and closer, and then it just bumped him a little.
43Oh, and that's not all.
44After that, an entire pod of orcas swam over to him.
45But after a while, one of them slapped its fin on the water as if to tell the family,
46"Hey, it's just a kid,"
47and they all just swam off.
48So why do you think whales left the kid alone?
49Were they just not hungry?
50It may seem like that, but that's not really it.
51As far as we know, a whale has never eaten a human in the wild.
52Not ever. I'm serious.
53Besides bumping, there's hardly any record of an orca even biting a human in the ocean.
54Wow. But why is that?
55Do whales just want to be friends with humans?
56A lot of people used to think so.
57Hundreds of years ago, the First Nations People of Australia told stories of whales helping them as they fished.
58And some early sailors even told tales of whales protecting them from shark attacks while they were swimming.
59But scientists are beginning to think that being friendly isn't really the reason why orcas don't attack humans that often.
60We can't talk to orcas, so we really don't know why they don't attack humans.
61They just don't seem to do it.
62So, how do they know which things to attack and which to leave alone?
63It seems to have something to do with the way they've been taught by their parents and grandparents.
64When you were a baby, the grownups that took care of you probably taught you all sorts of things, like...
65how to walk and talk and what to eat and what not to eat.
66Well, orca parents do the same thing.
67Orcas are incredibly intelligent marine mammals.
68They even have the ability to communicate amongst their pod and teach their kids.
69Check out these special orcas in Argentina.
70The grownup orca is teaching its calf how to jump onto the beach to hunt seals.
71It's a pretty tricky thing to do without getting stuck on the sand.
72Orcas teach their babies all sorts of things, like what to eat.
73From an early age, they're taught to eat things like fish and squid and seals
74and sea lions, but not humans.
75And since orcas haven't been taught to eat us,
76they pretty much just leave humans alone and stick to the foods they've been taught to hunt.
77And we're not the only ones they ignore.
78These orcas live in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean.
79Their environment is full of all kinds of fish,
80but the orcas leave most of them alone,
81except for this one: the Chinook salmon.
82Even though it would be way easier to hunt other fish that are easier to find,
83orcas almost always go for this one.
84Can you guess why?
85Yep, it's because those are the fish that their parents taught them to eat when they were young.
86I guess you could say that orcas are great at following their parents' and teachers' directions, like you.
87And for that reason, they've never hurt anyone in the wild,
88but that doesn't mean they've never hurt anyone at all.
89There have been a few times where orcas have hurt trainers when they've been taken from their homes in the ocean
90and put in zoos or aquatic parks.
91Scientists aren't totally sure why this happens.
92It might be that they were playing too rough.
93Humans are really small compared to orcas,
94so if an orca plays rough with a trainer, that trainer might get hurt.
95Or maybe it was because the orcas were scared or unhappy about being taken away from their pods
96and put in a tiny tank where they can't do all the things they used to do in the ocean.
97Whatever it was, it's clear that these orcas were behaving very differently
98from how orcas behave in the wild.
99Marine experts are still learning about these incredible animals
100so we can better understand why they do the things that they do.
101So, are killer whales dangerous to humans?
102They definitely could be.
103They're huge and powerful and amazing hunters.
104But because of the way they've been taught by their parents and grandparents,
105they almost always choose to leave humans alone when they're in the wild.
106That's all for this week's question.
107Thanks, Akash, for asking it.