Killer Whales
grrlscientist | July 13, 2009tags: Antarctica, Orcas, Killer Whales, Orcinus orca, wildlife, streaming video
In this video, we are given a look at a pod of Orcas -- "killer whales" -- Orcinus orca, that live in the Antarctic. I have spent many happy hours in Friday Harbor at the University of Washington's research station, watching Orcas and talking to the biologists who study them. These biologists were fairly certain that the Friday harbor Orcas are a different subspecies or species from those orcas that live in more open waters, such as the ones you see in this video. The reasons? At the time, they didn't have DNA…
cwilcox | May 11, 2009The Times Online caught my attention today with this grizzly headline:
"Killer whales face cull after finding taste for rare otters"
The article talks about a possible culling of Orcas because a few of them have taken to eating endangered sea lions and sea otters. While there's no information about exactly how close biologists or wildlife leaders might be to agreeing to such a cull, it does say that the idea is being 'discussed.' Well, if there's a debate, here's my side of it.
Of course sea lions and sea otters are important. Steller's sea lions have been dying out in the Aleutian Islands…
grrlscientist | November 18, 2008tags: gentoo penguin, Pygoscelis papua, Orca, killer whales, Orcinus orca, streaming video
This gripping video details the real-life story of a gentoo penguin, Pygoscelis papua, being chased by a pod of hungry orcas, Orcinus orca, in Antarctica [5:01].
The submitter, Antarctica. SRSLY. writes: This has got to be one very, very relieved penguin! Probably thinking something along the lines of "I don't know if these strange creatures in the black rubber iceberg will eat me, but I KNOW the things in the water will eat me!"
This video was given to me by the chef at Vernadsky, the Ukrainian…