Unrelated but as an ESL, I always felt uncomfortable with the name "killer whales".
Not only "whales" is inappropriate according to their scientific classification, but also "killer" seems prejudicial since it inspire unwarranted fear.
Not only "whales" is inappropriate according to their scientific classification, but also "killer" seems prejudicial since it inspire unwarranted fear.
> Orcas kill for sport. They push, drag, and spin around live prey, including sea turtles, seabirds, and sea lions. Some go so far as to risk beaching themselves in order to snag a baby seal—not to consume, but simply to torture it to death.
We might as well call them the assholes of the sea.
Is them attacking luxury yachts the equivalent of my cat knocking down glasses of water?
>Some go so far as to risk beaching themselves in order to snag a baby seal—not to consume, but simply to torture it to death.
This is very much housecat behavior.
That paragraph you quoted is pretty hyperbolic. Many orcas hunt live and dangerous animals for food. Their prey can seriously injure and even kill them. Because orcas are tight family units with several generations of females and males in the same pod who never leave the pod and because of their intelligence, orcas engage in teaching the younger orcas and each other. So this can very easily look like tortue when it's in fact how orcas train each other to work together. They will also share food readily between each other, so this is why it will also appear to be toying with food.
Yes, there is no doubt that orcas will also legimitaely play with food, but even then, it's a human judgement on a wild animal that can't go pick out meat in a box that comes from an animal raised and slaughtered in a cage.
They are apex predators. I don't think it's prejudicial to call an apex predators "killer." It's accurate.
Do you still think it's "prejudicial" after seeing how they actually behave? - https://youtube.com/watch?v=35yly16M8p4
Beyond that, it's not inaccurate to call them whales. They belong to the same family as dolphins, which are toothed whales.
It would have been simpler if the word "whale" would have been applied only to baleen whales, but unfortunately in the Old English tradition the word "whale" was used for any big marine animal, e.g. not only for sperm whales, but even for walruses.