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The Case of the Orca That Killed Its Trainer
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "There's an interesting read at National Geographic by Kenneth Brower that probes the case of Tilikum, the homicidal killer whale, who killed his first trainer, 20-year-old Keltie Byrne in 1991. Then in July 6, 1999, a 27-year-old man who stayed after the park closed and evaded security to enter the orca tank was found dead and nude, draped over Tilikum's back with his genitals bitten off. Tilikum's most recent victim was Dawn Brancheau, the SeaWorld trainer he crushed, dismembered, and partially swallowed in 2010. 'Almost all students of orca believe that they are deranged by captivity, some more than others. Tilikum's record puts him at one end of a continuum. There have been dozens of attacks on trainers by an assortment of orcas in the marine parks around the world. [The movie] "Blackfish" shows video from several of these episodes at SeaWorld,' writes Brower. 'What is remarkable about Orcinus orca in marine parks is not these rare episodes. What is remarkable is their monumental forbearance.' For its part SeaWorld is attempting to cast the filmmakers as the true villains, characterizing them as anti-captivity zealots. The company says '"Blackfish" is inaccurate and misleading and, regrettably, exploits a tragedy that remains a source of deep pain for Dawn Brancheau's family, friends and colleagues.'"
homo human being + Latin: caedere to cut, kill
this use is entirely appropriate. the 'homo' in homocide is an objective use rather than a subjective one. it means that a human is being killed, rather than that a human is doing the killing.
Missed a closing tag.
Killer whale attacks on humans
.: Semper Absurda
Not really. People kayak around them all of the time. If they were particularly aggressive, we would know about it. Sea Lions are more obnoxious. Not that I would go out and try and pet one, but I've been within 50 yards of them before. It does get the heart going - the could crunch the kayak or small boat and find the chewy nugget inside but they don't seem to care one way or the other.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
If they attack/kill a human in the ocean, who's gonna document them?
The other humans at the scene maybe? A single human alone in the ocean is not as common as you seem to think.
Orca's hunt in packs, and coordinate their attacks. So they might communicate to organize an attack on a group of humans. Here is a video of a pod of orcas executing a very organized training session to teach the juveniles orcas how to isolate and kill a crabeater seal on the pack ice. It is hard for me to believe that they could do this without some sort of high level communication. They are very intelligent animals.
"The number of people with the opportunity to come within 100 meters of a wild Orca would be extremely small, let alone within biting range."
Rubbish. I swam with them in the fjords of Norway. I was one of many tens of thousands of tourists that do this every year.
This is far more people than swim with them in captivity that only includes trainers and authorised personnel.
You're jumping to a conclusion based on a theory you've simply made up but that is false. If anything your point acts counter to the conclusion you've come to - I'd wager given the size of the tourist industry that far more people encounter them in the wild with far less experience of the animals than the experienced people who get injured and killed by them in captivity. If the threat was equivalent in the wild to how it is in captivity then tourists wouldn't even be allowed to swim with them because it'd almost certainly be deemed too dangerous, but that's not the case.