"See that son? That is called a human and is a predator like us. Its not as strong or fast as we are but its part of a VERY big pack and if you attack it the whole pack will come after you so always leave it alone" - wolf mom
in terms of strength and maneuverability we are actually more scary than bears from a wolves perspective. a fit fully grown human in fight mode can dislocate the wolves jaws or punch/kick the air out of it's lungs. with higher accuracy and less blind spots than a horse or deer. add a basic weapon like a thick tree branch we are 2x as deadly and un-reachable. in flight mode we can't run as fast but we can run far longer.
@@psionx1 thats the thing with us humans, it don't matter if we can run longer than a bear, that bear is twice our speed and will catch up Long before that is ever a problem. Defensively, our speed leaves us vulnerable, offensively with persistence hunting no animal is safe on land.
I have a feeling that the Leopard Seel death was not intentionally trying to kill but was an attempt to play. They are surrounded by creatures that can survive under water for long periods of time so probably had no idea humans couldn't do it
@@daandevos122 i mean its not so uncommo nthat htey also drowen seals ,penguins etc by playing around with them so its prob like oh no ,,,another toy ,,broke ,,, :( ......well ,,,lets find another one
@@Astralopifthink about what animals most commonly come into contact with in the wild. Things usually fly or walk on all fours. We're the exception. Also, when an animal walks on its hind legs, it's usually a threat display. Picture a grizzly bear standing up on its hind legs to intimidate a human in the wild. "Look how big I am." We're kind of doing that display just walking around normally. We're weird looking and kinda big. Safer to avoid us
@@AstralopifI always thought about what a coyote or bear would see if a couple humans screamed at it and ran towards it with our long arms waving around, yelling weird shit, considering you’re eye level to our waists I feel like I’d be terrified of humans haha
@@clamcrewcarclub6017ive had the same thought about tigers, what would one do if a physically fit person showed not only a lack of fear, but extreme aggression and desire to kill, and started sprinting like a madman toward it. would it feel fear and flea? Would it attack? Would it be too confused to actually know what to do?
One would imagine it's like how elephants avoid bees. Sure they're bigger and deadly one on one but man if you rile up that hive you're going to need to leave that area and not come back for a long while.
But mosquitos don't feed on every creature with blood. So they don't like the taste of all creatures either. They don't even feed on all people, they will select certain individuals and show preference for them based on smell and taste.
I shared an office at university with Kirsty Brown, the unfortunate victim of the leopard seal. She was a very small woman and I imagine that wearing a black dry-suit would have looked similar to an emperor penguin. She wasn’t dragged down and drowned, she was bitten on the back of the neck just as leopard seals do to penguins.
I know it sounds weird, but in many areas, where bears got heavily hunted, they tend to stay away from humans even when they are not hunted anymore and the attacks are far less common than in areas, where bears didn't got intensely hunted. It faszinates that each generation of the offspring of those bears learned that humans are dangerous
It's probably some sort of instinct/gene in the brain. Bears with gene that gives them confidence to attack weird mammal that walks on two legs- gets killed, gene doesn't pass on. Bears without the gene that gives them confidence to attack weird mammal that walks on two legs- doesn't get killed, gene doesn't pass on and whatever brain function that tells them to avoid us gets passed on.
Orca: What’s that? *A group of strange limbed hairless screaming things with sharp long things stabbing a giant whale and dragging it away every day for 20 years straight* Orca: … yeah, I’m not touching that.
Yeah and those hairless ship apes have been known to chop fins off sharks and leave them to die... And there's also all the other fishing we do... They're probably smart enough to know they don't want to be treated like those other sea creatures- "Listen to what momma says - act cute and nonthreatening when you see these murderous creatures around!"
One thing that will always give you a decent edge over a lone predator is our aptness for ranged combat. Chuck a few decent sized rocks at a wolf, score a few hits and it'll be freaked out at how you're causing it pain when it itself isn't near close enough to retaliate. It will most likely retreat because you're not worth the risk.
I dont think most humans realize how insane the concept of throwing is, it might be even more impressive than our intelligence. The ability to cause repeated ranged damage is something literally no other animal can do. Sure spitting cobras can spit a couple feet, and some insects can spray a bit but the ability to just pick up a rock and use it to cause major damage from far away is basically a super power. (Not even apes are not capable of throwing things remotely like humans) Its more amazing than flying or any other abilities we consider to be impressive.
Wolves also seem to match themselves against an opponent and try to assess their chances of success early in the battle. If they realize they can't win, the tails start wagging and the tongue comes out -- they try to make friends. There's a video somewhere on RUclips of a pack of wolves going against a Great Pyrenees protecting a flock of sheep. First they are fierce, then the alpha gets a look on his face like, "What are you doing! Can't you see my pups are hungry??!! Traitor!" Then one of them opens his jaws, attempting to get them around the pooch's neck, and realizes he can't come close. He then grins and pants, and a few seconds later the whole pack is trotting cheerfully around the fluffy dawg, as if saying, "Hey, that was fun! So do you think the hooman would hire us too???"😂
Well, in instances where orcas become stranded or trapped in shallow waters, humans often come to their aid. This assistance can include efforts to refloat the stranded orcas and guide them back to deeper waters. These rescue efforts may foster positive associations between orcas and humans, potentially contributing to a general lack of aggression.
It's not too far of a stretch considering their high intelligence, proven communication skills and ability to reason and coordinate attacks. Perhaps one day science will progress enough that we can actually interview one of them.
Conversely, getting trapped in fishing nets would harbor negative associations towards boats - not humans, boats - which might be why there are orcas attacking and even sinking boats near the Mediterranean
@@purrfekt i heard scientists are getting close to decode their language, the funny thing is that their language is like ours, they have several, not just one! Hence why they also have different cultures.
It's also important to note about that one and only wild orca bite on that surfer who survived: If you get bitten by literally-an-orca, and you *survive,* then the orca wasn't trying to kill you. Who knows why it bit the guy, but it definitely decided not to kill him.
For REAL. The thing is a tank-sized death machine. There wouldn't be a toe left of you for someone to realize something went wrong, just "lost at sea." I think we're all being a bit optimistic to believe they will _never_ eat a person.
It was a surfer so like a lot of Great White attacks it likely thought the surf board was a seal and when it got a taste of the human and went "Woah! That was not a seal WTF!"
He was probably being a dick. Orcas are self aware. We don't classify them as the same level as us only becuase they don't use tools or build houses. Neither of which they would need in there native environments and they aren't equipped to leave the ocean. A true aquatic species would likely stay in the pre Stone age. As everything they need is either already there or a part of there body. We see this in dolphins and Orcas. As well as blue whales the largest preditor on the planet.
Fun fact: Not only do Orcas have complex LANGUAGES. They have dialects, and even engage in fashion trends. There was an orca trend where they wore dead fish as hats. Some even tried to revive trends, but it didn't work
@@Linda-jl5lx Supposedly the mass of bird calls you can hear in trees and stuff sometimes is even the group of birds living in or claiming it telling the new birds in the area that there's nowhere to live
The most interesting behavior I have seen in all of the animal kingdom is that the majority of predators avoid potential danger, and yet at the same time show an interest in the things that they don't deem worth hunting. It applies to any large intelligent predator in a remarkably similar way. I wish we knew more about all the other amazing life forms on this planet so we could understand how to properly communicate, and interact with them as well as gain more respect for our little blue dot.
Absolutely this. It pays for a predator to be both cautious - if one loses an eye or a canine tooth, for example, it could seriously impair their ability to hunt depending on the species - and curious. It makes a great deal of strategic sense to keep your options open but also to watch your six (and have your buddies do so with special species like dolphins and wolves). Many prey species are nearly as dangerous as the ones that predate upon them, and opportunity sometimes knocks on strange doors.
I mean it kinda makes sense right? Prey species don’t need to have much going on upstairs to survive well. They just gotta chew grass and run like hell. It doesn’t take much to outsmart grass. Predators’ curious nature is useful because it helps them learn how to utilise the environment to get a leg up on prey that are usually bigger and faster than they are
If you ask me, i think its Evolution, because wer humans practice "revenge" and we are realy good and effective at it,... Yes We are weak alone... With a suprise attack... But oh boy, what comes after that, is not funny for the animal that did that. Because when We take revenge and hunt them down... Yeah... For example Wolfs ... If every Pack that hunted humans got rotted out... That's leaves Only the ones that dont do that, and that is better for survival than hunting human, Evolution did what it Always does, the surving genes get passt down to the next Generation 😅
Only ever encountered 2 wolves, in Romania where I was on vacation in a wooden cabin by a forest lake. I was fishing as they approached and my Romanian friend who had a lot more experience told me to continue fishing. The wolves sat down about 50 meters from us and just watched us for about 15 minutes, I heard howling from somewhere else and the two wolves just vanished, unfortunately I did not have my smartphone with me as it was supposed to be a "no-electronics" vacation.
More likely because we don't behave like prey. Our behavior is more like that of a poisonous animal. We actively approach the predator and maintain eye contact. It's not worth the risk to them.
That's a very good point. It's like when you see a mountain lion, you're supposed to stand tall and put your arms up to look bigger, and make noise. I think most predators use ambush or chase tactics to avoid injury. If a predator gets hurt in the wild, it's game over for them, so they try to play it safe.
What most people think: Orcas are smart enough to know not to mess with humans. What I think: Orcas are smart enough to make sure that when they do kill a human the rest of us will never find out about it.
I think with the orcas and leopard seals, it can be explained by the fact that we are not native to their natural habitat and because they are intelligent creatures they approach us more with a sense of curiosity and caution than a desire to hunt. I think wolves may have evolved to avoid humans instinctively after humans previously killed many of them and they probably also are intimidated by our upright stance as mentioned in the video. They may also acknowledge that we're not as nutritious a meal for a pack as a large deer and also not worth hunting individually when there are smaller, weaker animals to hunt like rabbits and such.
I think this is partly true for the orcas but not fully. They will eat moose. And I think we (especially now) interact with orcas in the wild just as much as moose do. But maybe they recognize us as intelligent and that combined with limited exposure makes a difference.
@@jakeryan4545 My bet is it's closer to the killer whales beaching themselves specifically for seal pups. The moose regularly swim between landmasses in rivers that the killer whale pods regularly visit so the killer whales have had enough exposure to both the live and dead moose to identify them as food.
Yeah, I feel like leopard seals and killer whales don't hunt humans because they don't really know or understand us, but wolves don't because they DO know us. In fact, I don't think that any apex predator has quite the understanding of humans that wolves do.
I've heard a few stories about interactions between humans and leopard seals and for them in particular it seems that humans are kind of the equivalent of a cute little kitten... They largely seem to treat humans in the way a person would treat a kitten.
@@eluminaryxarrais7735 That's interesting, never really thought about seals having notions like 'cute' maybe I don't give them enough brainpower credit?
Funny fact about humans: we have stomach acid roughly the same strength of scavenger species. Vultures and such. Even lower than other omnivores, which we are and omnivores have stronger acid than carnivores, who in turn have stronger acid than herbivores. A strange evolutionary adaption considering we haven't likely often eaten rotten food commonly for potentially hundreds of thousands of years.
Why wolves stay away from humans: Wolf A: What about that tasty looking critter? Wolf B: Where? Wolf A: Over there! The one on two legs. Wolf B: Are you nuts? Never, ever go near one of those! Wolf A: What do you mean? It doesn't look that dangerous... Wolf B: You have no idea. Do you see the dachshund and chihuahua with it? Wolf A: You mean that weird sausage creature and the furry flea? Wolf B: Yes! Wolf A: Um... They don't look very dangerous, either... Wolf B: You don't get it. Those were wolves, until the two-legs got hold of them! Wolf A: Yelp! /*vanishing in the distance*/
That's a good point. Becarful or we will breed you with you mom and sisters till we have monstrous genetic freaks that will be unrecognizable to your kind.
European wolves aren't particularly afraid of humans. The winter of 1450 Paris was under constant fear of wolf attacks, up to and including the city market itself. During ww1 the Germans and Russians had a temporary ceasefire to hunt down the wolf packs that were killing and eating men in the trenches.
@@W1ldSm1le Wolves have been heavily hunted since 1450. The bolder individuals were killed off. Also, keep in mind, people have always been prone to exaggeration. The wolf was the monster in myth and folklore; no other animal that actually existed has a reputation like that. How many attacks would it take, to put a city in fear? As for WWI, the wolves weren't hunting men. Men were killing men, and the wolves were scavenging on the corpses that were left in no-man's land. You see, there's only so much dead and rotting flesh you can leave around, before even the most timid scavengers will be drawn in. Of course, this was very unfortunate for anyone who'd be shot to pieces, but was somehow still alive, abandoned in the darkness and mist, unable to defend themselves or flee. Today, attacks by European wolves are beyond rare.
when it comes to wolves not hunting us, I think a big part of it comes from a while back when there was a bounty on wolves, which lead to a lot of them getting picked off by humans, it may have become instinct to avoid humans because of this
One reason wolves don't hunt humans is that over the centuries, the bold animals that would be more likely to attack have been removed from the population leaving only the skittish and wary animals to reproduce. This would have changed the behaviour of wolves and they would instinctive avoid humans.
The fact that humans don't have sharp claws and teeth doesn't mean they're not threatening. It means that they're so threatening that the minor advantage provided by leaving those structures behind was stronger than the overwhelming advantage that those structures provide to many predatory animals. It's not a weakness, it's the flex of an apex predator.
Humans are actually not an apex predator but just a realyl bad scavenger no joke cuase if oyu kill a cow ,pig etc and would try to eat the meat right after its to tough for us to eat and it would not taste good in our opinions so it have to hung for (depending on the meat) 2-9 weeks or even more technically starting to rott so we can actually eat and digerst it properly but thats not how predators work ,,, theyx kill and eat it sure they will also scavenge but they still be able to digest frehsly killed meat with no trouble the next thing is that when you kill an animal you have to prepare it properly like letting it bleed out etc otherwise the taste and quality will suffer its another point of showing that we are just really bad scavengers prob we are not much diffrent from a Creyfish or Crab munching most of our time on plant matter but take any chance we got to get on a carcass and try to make a kill from time to time would also explain why concuming to much meat /animal products makes our bodys actually sick cause if crabs/greyfish consume to much meat/animal stuff they will also get sick and die younger then the ones munching mostly on plant matter
Another theory is we are a relatively "boney" species. Other predators didn't evolve to view us as prey for a number of reasons that essentially boil down to: "Not being worth the effort."
Well yeah. We’re just so different to everything else, that it invites unnecessary risk. Think about what we look like from an orca’s or a wolf’s perspective. We move and breathe and make sounds like everything else. We have families and communicate like they do. But why are we holding odd objects? Why are we covered in strange material? Where do we come from before we leave our strange, loud, indestructible boxes? We’re unbelievably dangerous, but also fragile. We’re cruel and kill for no reason, but also can show great kindness and curiosity like they do. We’d be uncanny because we’re obviously living animals with much in common, but also are strange in ways that absolutely nothing else is. I’d be terrified, yet curious too
I have always thought it was that predators expect fear in eyes of their prey. A leopard meets an antelope and senses the antelope knows it will be killed. If a leopard meets a human it can somehow sense that the human is thinking - "That's just what I need. A leopard skin coat!".
Wolves: I experienced in the wilds of Northern Ontario, that the Timber Wolves leave us well alone. I have been surrounded by packs of Wolves and it was very obvious that they were curious. When their curiosity was satisfied, they just left quietly.
All predators are naturally afraid of us, cuz we're not a part of their natural habitat. The only exception is crocodiles, who will eat ANYTHING that wanders too close.
I would add that most orcas have very specific prey items on their menu that they specialize in hunting, and often don’t target animals not on the list. They build routines and practices for their specifies prey items. For obvious reasons humans don’t provide enough opportunities to build those practices, so there’s one reason they approach people with curiosity rather than a hunting attitude.
That makes sense, I myself would not eat any meat from animals that looks very different than the one I used to eat, unless in a desperate situation. (So... no reptiles, rodents, exotic animals, etc)
This is very true. We think of them as generalists because overall they eat such a wide range of marine life. But as he said each pod has their own culture and their own specialties in hunting. It's pretty narrow niche partitioning, though they are also very intelligent and might well check out a novel source of prey and/or entertainment.
true, but that doesn't really explain why no human got ever seriously _hurt_ by wild orcas. there are many animals which don't consider humans as prey (think herbivores) but still are very dangerous for humans and even constantly cause a number of deaths (e.g. hippos). orcas don't. why? I would be very nervous and fear for my health if I were to encounter a rhino but I would feel quite safe in the company of an orca.
I remember this incident where I lady was swimming just offshore and small group of orcas showed and was trailing behind. The interesting thing about it was, theyre behavior looked similar to ordinary dolphins being curious. Though some did seemed to give a slight nibble on her foot, that was really the only "hostile" behavior.
I heard about a theory that if orcas communication and intelligence is as advanced as some people think they could easily pass down stories from the times of whaling when it was not unheard of for orcas to help whalers catch whales in return for the carcass once the whalers got the oil and whatever else they hunted them for. And even tell their offspring what we are capable of with our ships should we become enemies. Personally I think its a mix of passed down behavior from the older members of the pod who might have encountered humans with positive outcomes and a intelligent fascination with us for being utterly alien from the sea. They are so intelligent that they might be able to grasp the concept that there is a world unknown to them on land and interacting with humans is a way to sate some curiousity about it. Either way I hope that I get to swim with some one day.
@@jazz3911 Only if the orcas were somehow interfering with the hunt. Orcas are much faster than the large whales, therefore harder to catch. Also, only one side of their brain sleeps at a time, so they're harder to sneak up on. When you add in the much smaller amount of blubber an orca has (an average humpback weighs 5 times as much as the largest known orca), it's simply not worth the whaler's time to hunt orcas. There are cases of whalers, seal hunters and fishermen trying to kill orcas, mostly because the orcas were seen as competition. Every seal, whale, or fish the orcas kill is one less for the humans.
I remember watching a documentary about why lions are scared of humans. I forgot if it was just at a certain location or if it was in general. It said, for thousands of years the lions that did hunt humans were killed by our ancestors and the ones that ran away from us were able to reproduce more thus passing on their traits. Maybe the same thing happened to the wolves. The aggresive ones got killed while the friendliest ones got tamed.
The masai. They still walk through and lions run. Bug only them. From a rites of passage that requires them to kill a lion being given only a spear and dagger. It’s ingrained in them to fear the masai. I’ve read that due to lion population being threatened they no longe partake in that ritual/custom whatever u wanna call it
It's very rare but there have been cases of wild wolves killing people. The fact that pretty much all big marine mammals rarely if ever (I've never heard of it ever happening) eat people is pretty incredible though. Even the rare occasions when they do hurt or kill someone it's almost always an accident. Think how terrifying it would be if they did intentionally hunt us down!
Orcas used to hunt humans until a particularly vicious pack ran right into Chuck Norris. In exchange for sparing the species, they are holding up their end of the bargain.
To make a slight correction; while it is tempting to say humans are physically unimpressive, what allowed humans to begin prospering and further develope in the first place was our impressive long distance stamina thanks to our ability to sweat. By sweating to cool our bodies, humans have virtually instant recovery times when compared to other mammals. Early human hunting packs could track and chase large prey animals over miles until their prey simply couldn't continue. We would just follow our prey until it was too tired to move. This ability not only made us some of the most terrifying and diligent predators in Earth's history, but in my opinion is equally as powerful as our intelligence.
Endurance hunting being a main hunting strategy for humans is a misconception. Humans have been mostly ambush hunters and chasing over long distances is rarely worth the time and energy. Not only do you need to have the ground be in perfect condition for tracking, you expend a lot of water and need to be able to bring all that meat back. To top that off, only the most fit of people could pull hunts like that off. To cite a source, here is an excerpt from "Why are humans good at endurance running? The answer is murky." By TIMOTHY F. KIRN/UNDARK on Popular science: "The idea of ancient humans as persistence hunters, possessed of superior physical capability, has a certain romance about it and has become very popular with running enthusiasts. Some scientists suggest it can explain several of the evolutionary traits humans have acquired over the past two million years. There may be some groups who practice it even today, though that’s hotly debated. Despite the idea’s foothold in popular culture, however, there is no hard evidence that ancient humans were persistence hunters, much less that persistence hunting shaped evolutionary traits. In fact, what evidence there is doesn’t support the notion that early humans acquired their meaty meals through feats of running endurance; it flatly contradicts it." Another excerpt: "Bunn recognized a golden opportunity. “We don’t usually get such clear-cut evidence to test something from 2 million years ago,” he said. He and Pickering thought that if they could age the different animals in that collection, they could glean whether the animals were scavenged, persistence hunted, or hunted some other way. If the animals had been scavenged or captured by persistence hunting, they likely would have been either very young or very old. Savanna predators like lions and leopards don’t chase the healthiest, fastest animals of a herd-and presumably persistence hunters wouldn’t either. Rather, they’d chase the ones that are easiest to catch. But the researchers found that most of the animals in the collection were either young adults or adults in their prime. Of the 19 animals they could identify, only four were very young or old. To Bunn and Pickering, that suggested the animals hadn’t been chased down. And because there were butchering marks on the bones with the best meat, it was also safe to assume that animal carcasses hadn’t been scavenged by humans after being killed by other predators; the predators surely would have taken the prime portions for themselves. "Instead, Bunn believes ancient human hunters relied more on smarts than on persistence to capture their prey. In his paper with Pickering, he suggests that our ancestors would wait in brushy, forested areas for the animals to pass by. They may have even hidden in the branches of trees, since hooved animals tend not to look up. That would have allowed the hunters to get close enough to club the animal with a sharp object." Nobody will read this whole thing, but I think dispelling misconceptions is a good thing.
@@trulyinfamous holy smokes, thank you for this comment! I had no idea about this and its immensely interesting! While i think it is wrong to assume perssitence hunting was absent in primitive hunting strategies (especially in areas with open terrain and little cover), i do admit it i was a bit foolish in assuming this would be our predominant strategy given our intelligence. Early humans would have been foolish not to take advantage of this intelligence to plan ambushes and other complex hunting strategies. I have to admit i would like to do more research on the topic before being swayed either direction but i thank you for taking the time to contradict my point and educate me on the subject! Thank you again!
It´s scary to think that while we study orcas and leopard seals, they study us too. Maybe not in a complex way but still... What if orcas pass on information about humans to other orcas? That would mean that the more we learn about orcas, the more they learn about us.
Shane Lawrence, we're not debating the speed of their learning, but the fact that they learn very close to our level. Respect to the 1 animal we fear for all the wrong reasons.
I like the fact that the primary reason for not being hunted is basically we're not worth the effort. We're easy kills but actually the hassle would exceed the benefit.
@@greenwave819 don't think that matters. Yes, we might be able to kill them but that doesn't mean it's also not easy to be killed by them. Same way as we've successfully invented machines to be able to fly in the air but that doesn't mean if I fall from the sky I won't make a large and bloody crater in the ground when I land.
@@greenwave819 Innocent people are yeah. But if it happens and continuously hunting squads will go out and hunt the killer whales. Killer whales will know they will be slaughtered if they step out of line they're not stupid
@@user-rv6cx3rz7t uhhmmm....even without weapons Humans is Highly Dangerous Why "FIRE" when we learn to make Fire its Game over its the Main Reason why we Flip the Food Chain and we become the Super Apex Predator in the land.
I think with orcas they have a strong cultural memory and they remember us from the whaling days. Though we didn’t really hunt them they definitely saw us at work on their larger cousins. In fact down in Eden NSW Australia a pod of killer whales allied themselves with a whaling company to cooperatively hunt baleen whales.
It was sort of a cooperative thing as I understand it. The whales wanted the tongue which the whalers didn’t want and both groups were able to make the kill with much less risk. This being old school whaling days with towing boat and hand thrown harpoons.
What cousins? Orcas are dolphins, they were called killer whales as the shorter version of killer of whales, some literally hunt down blue whales they aren't scared of us they are just used to eat the same things and also they probably don't know if we might be poisonous because we have never been on their menu
In regards to the intro, it's maybe worth pointing out that humans actually are pretty physically impressive compared to other animals in at least one regard: We're basically the track and field superstars of the animal kingdom. We're not the fastest by any means, but thanks to our exceptional stamina, if you make the race long enough a decently fit human will leave most other animals in the proverbial dust.
Yeah we're not the largest, strongest or fastest, but we're not the smallest, weakest or slowest either. Being bipedal we appear tall to many other predators and this tradeoff of speed/acceleration for endurance means humans will indeed leave EVERY other animal in the proverbial dust with the exception of the ostrich (also bipedal), but that is debatable depending on the distance covered (e.g. marathon vs ultramarathon). Besides having by a long way the most advanced brains, toolmaking ability and ability to communicate, humans also have the best throwing mechanism on the planet, making us by far the most adaptable and effective ground hunters on the planet.
One thing I'd add because vids like this always seem to not mention- humans got where we are not only because of our intelligence and tool use, but because of our complex social behaviours. A lone human in the wild is pretty vulnerable, but multiple humans working together can scare away even the most dangerous natural predators.
It's similar for cetaceans (whales and dolphins), and to some extent also for wolves, so they also have evolutionary pressure to communicate quickly and reliably in ways that the prey doesn't understand. This is probably why cetaceans appear to also have complex languages, and why dogs, while not having language, are still amazingly good at communicating with humans.
There’s an archeologist/anthropologist (I don’t quite remember) who said that the earliest sign of civilization isn’t something like tool use or agriculture as one might expect. It’s a healed femur, because it’s the kind of injury that you can’t survive without a lot of help. If you live past the injury long enough for the bone to heal, it means that someone carried you to safety, tended your wound, watched over you, brought you food for weeks or months, etc. Caring for one another is where civilization begins.
@@auntvivienne8669 i believe it was an archeologist. There was a fossil discovery a couple years ago and they found it had a healed break, which was a big deal because it was evidence that species was somewhat intelligent, at least on par with canids (this was a million year old fossil though, not a dino)
Seals are a group that I'm shocked haven't been domesticated at any point in history. They're basically water dogs and would fit the equivalent role dogs hold for hunters but tailored to fishermen instead
Seals can't really hunt for someone else they eat the prey right away (krill or fish) Leopard seals are the exceptions, being the only one eating warm blood preys but they are solitary animals that don't even really accept the presence of other leopard seals so good luck to domesticate it ;)
Easy answer... Were land animals... How to domesticate a wolf? Steal a puppy, bring it home where youre safe from mama wolfs revenge, raise it in your backyard, feed it with stuff you have around you. Easy right? How to domesticate a leopard seal? Build a house near water, build a boat that is big enough to support you for a couple of days to go hunting for leopard seal babies, steal the baby and survive the attack of mama seal while being in a tiny wooden boat out on the open sea... Hope no storm hits you while being on the sea... Hope you dont spring a leak... Hope your food and water dont get spoiled by anything so you starve to death or dehydrate... Bring it home, build a huge water basin or fenced off part of the sea, go out fishing every goddamn day to feed it and eventually youll get a domesticated leopard seal. After that you start realizing that you have been fishing all the time and cought enough fish to feed yourself and a hundrets of pounds seal, so the seal starts to feel really useless all of a sudden... You could have eaten all the fish and sold whatever you got left somewhere for money or treats... Domesticating seals would have been a pain in the arse and dangerous, cause at that times tens or hundrets of thousands of years ago when we started domesticating animals, every kind of water was a dangerous place for humans to hang around. Especially the oceans. Cows, wolfes and big cats were basically easy to catch right in your front yard, so no need to go to the ocean to domesticate something you have almost no access to. And at that time we actually had boats and could actually domesticate sea creatures, fishing skills were already so good developed, that it made no sense to domesticate something to catch fish for you, if you had towlines where you could catch dozens of fishes at once. If you want to know more, theres some exelent documentaries about how humans domesticated animals... I wish our ancestors hadnt been that affraid of sabertooth cats, they just killed them off when they saw them, but theres speculations if at some point humans did actually domesticae sabertooth cats for hunting. Problem with that theory was, wolfes are roughly the size and weight of humans, so if it decides for some reason it has enough of your domestication efforts, its easy to fend off an angry wolf. Good luck trying fending off an angry 800 pound sabertooth tiger thats fed up with your bullshit or doesnt want to share its prey with you. Guess same goes for cavebears, could have been domesticated, but you know, 12 feet long, 2000 pounds... As an early human you start wondering the "maybe benefits" are worth the risk...
@@nitro8529 I mean, you probably wouldn't be going for leopard seals given how far away their hunting territories are - you'd be going for easier finds like grey seals and the like which would also be easier to feed and control due to their smaller size plus you could just grab a stranded/abandoned pup from your local beach - unlikely they'd grab a guarded one though as grey seals can 'sprint' up to 35 km/h (so unless you're an olympic sprinter, you aren't gonna get away) plus seal pups being left unguarded isn't too rare. That said, to add to your point, the important thing for domestication isn't 'steal a puppy, bring it home' but to have *many* puppies to eventually start a breeding stock that isn't gonna incest-itself to extinction in a few generations and that's a significantly larger slice of your catch (average grey seal eats about 5kg of fish per day, multiply that by a minimum of 4 and you could feed a family of 5 for a week from a single day of their diet). Also, aside from pelts (for which prey animals are generally better anyway), wolves and cats aren't really good for anything as their meat isn't exactly known for it's deliciousness; seals on the otherhand have been hunted for their blubber and meat for thousands of years, making them too valuable as prey to be a companion predator and too predatory/aggressive to be domesticated prey. Final reason; wolves helped man hunt more/larger prey than they might otherwise have been capable of whereas seals don't typically hunt prey larger than themselves, so it doesn't give you any more options even after all that investment. All this is to say, dogs and their ancestors were perfect for ancient man in a way no other animal can replicate and should be cherished as the good boys/girls they are/were.
There are stories of domesticated seals in alaska that died off as a result fo a series of hard winters. There is also some evidence that neolithic peoples on the baltic coast domesticated seals but at some point the practise disappeared.
Orca's are VERY common in the northwest coast of North America. And many people have encounters with them where they simply come up to check the person out. Many people using simple things like paddle boards or kayaks report encounters with Orcas. There is even footage of an Otter jump on someones boat to escape an Orca and the Orca not harassing the boat.
@@Tugela60 that's not completely true. It depends on the age and size of the shark. Bigger/older sharks know what they are doing for the most part. If they are biting you, it's usually either territorial or it wants to consume you (they may be desperate for food). Smaller/younger Sharks definitely have been shown to display behavior where they attack people because of mistaken identity... But the idea that generally Sharks only attack people because of mistaken identity is a myth that gets perpetuated in popular media. If you actually look at the recorded shark attacks through history, there are numerous cases of Sharks actively hunting humans and eating them alive. In these cases, I guess someone could argue the first bite was an accident, but when it comes to the the second and third bites, that theory goes out the window. These attacks are rare relative to human/shark interactions, but they are within the range of potential outcomes.. whereas a human's relationship to Orcas is completely different. Orcas do not want to eat you, there's no evidence to suggest they do. It's a rare occurrence for humans to be treading water in the open ocean in the first place.. when a boat capsizes and leaves people stranded for example, the fear of sharks is justified, because you are a floating easy meal.. sharks that attack people stranded at sea know what they are doing.. they will avoid large groups of people conjugated together in favor of trying to pick out stragglers.. if they are in the area and they are hungry enough, they'll have a go at you. None of this is an accident.
@@waynetables6414 Man eating sharks while a thing that happens from time to time are still pretty much the minority. Humans are a Horrible source of sustinance as the amount of bones compared to flesh and fat is pretty high basicaly we are the worst thing to eat for large predators as we are basicaly filled with stuff they can´t digest and a low in nutrational value food on top of it. Add to that that humans are spitefull prey with the dexterity to attack weak spots like eyes or other sensory organs we are realy not worth it
The northwest coast of North America is one of the areas that they are the least common in. They are starving because the salmon are dying off. Look it up.
@@ericcampbell9470 That's the Southern Resident population in Washington state. The Northern populations are growing. With 300+ whales in BC and 2300 in Alaska. Look it up.
Orca dad: You know those seals with the real long thin flippers that go riding around on those magic floating rocks, it's best not to mess with them. Wolf dad: Don't ever mess with that kind of monkey, they can kill you with thunder or turn you into one of their mutant slaves or even a pug.
Gorilla dad: See those very strange looking monkeys? They're cool with us until they piss us off. But even then we don't stand a chance against them. We just don't.
Just like us, somewhere in the leopard seal world, a young curious seal is listening to another seal talk about how fascinating humans are, and how we don't hunt them, but are just curious most times😊
A Scottish wildlife ranger told me a story of something that happened to him and some friends who were out canoeing in the Atlantic. They were approached by a pod of orcas who circled them. They pulled all their canoes together and started praying. The whales kept circling them for nearly an hour, getting very close and looking them in the eye. Eventually they got bored and swam off. Quite an experience!
I was fishing on a beach on the east coast of NZ a couple years ago and a leopard seal was just chilling in the sand dunes. We thought it was exhausted and baking in the 32 degree sun so we poured sea water on it and it slowly made its way back to the sea as we did it. It seemed genuinely pleased.
in your use of the word 'genuinely', ask yourself "does this word help change the meaning of the sentence?" It seemed pleased vs it seemed genuinely pleased. Succinct writing is smart writing!
@@greenwave819 It does change the meaning. The leopard seal was pleased to the fullest degree. Ask yourself, “Is my comment necessary?” Pretentious commenting is annoying commenting!
@Green Wave, I hate the comments that write "would of" or "there" when they mean "they're," but adding an (in your opinion) unnecessary adjective or adverb is no reason to comment. If people took your advice, there would be some pretty boring work out there. No poetry. No interesting novels. Just the boring old facts.
One theory I have heard that is that humans don't actually taste bad to predators, but we smell as if we WOULD taste bad. Animals which have eaten humans once are many times more likely to do so again.
Domestic dogs on the other hand hunt humans regularly, not for food, but to play a strange game that involves holding a ball but not letting the person touch it, even though they chase it when thrown.
Orcas are incredible creatures. the fact they marvel at us instead of use us as a volley ball like they do to seals and sharks is kinda confusing to me. when I first learned they aren't whales but big dolphins it kinda makes more sense (even though orcas are known to hunt other dolphins) they are naturally curious creatures who have always been curious and playful with humans. I think it's also a blessing they don't hunt us or else past people would have likely drove them to extinction.
Yeah if there’s anything in the world that tried to go after humans as prey we’d do anything in our power to eliminate them. So far the closest any other animal can get is mosquitos which aren’t usually life threatening on their own and hippos but they’re just defensive assholes 😂 a very surprising amount of people have been killed because of them.
@@totallynotafanficreader7850 it's not the mosquito that ends up killing humans it is the parasite(s) they infect us with. But for sure those little bastard do hunt us fearlessly and successfully.
I just realised how similar leopard seals are similar to cats in terms of behaviour : both bring dead animals to people as a sign of friendliness, both like to toy around with their prey ( and when it comes to big cats like pumas then both could be a man eater but usually are chill and just mind their business). and it wloud seem that leopard seals wloud have more dog-like behaviour since canines and pinnipeds are distant relatives.
How ominous was the "there could still be an incident in the future when one Orca decides to take a bite..." Granted, Gladys is not taking bites, she's sinking entire ships 😅
20 years ago in Northern India, there was a pair of wolves who started a new pack and had a litter that killed 10s of children. They terrorized remote jungle villages for years before they were shot down along with their pups who had learned to hunt human children, and sothey do not pass this trait to other wolves they mate with and their own pups.
0:14 Actually, human jaws are actually very strong for their size. Unfortunately, your teeth will often break before you can use full force, and your brain will usually prevent you from biting with full force, the same way it prevents you from easily biting off your finger.
But then we look at the gorilla and we lose all confidence in our bite strength. Pretty sure gorilla bite strength is in the top of the top 10 strongest bites in the animal kingdom, over 1000 psi. It’s why they’ve got such tall heads, and why they likely won’t evolve larger brains in the foreseeable future: they have crazy big jaw muscles and structure that anchors all the way up their heads.
My theory for orca and seal: Imagine you are sitting in your backyard and you saw an animal you never encountered before. It seems harmless and doesn't look like the stuff you normally eat. Now what would you do? I think many of us, might want to play with it or even try to feed it if you had a bread in your hand (let's forget about that "do not approach wild animal" rule for a minute). Long story short, curiosity.
You should also consider that we as humans tend to kill any individual animal that was found to attack one of us. This creates an evolutionary advantage for all representatives of species that are ignoring/friendly to us. It can’t override situations of enormous starvation - but sifts out general misbehavior.
That reminds me of lion seals who reportedly brought dead fish to divers and scientists and some even tried to teach human how to hunt like they do with there young.
Orcas might be picky eaters but they dont just kill for food, theyre known to kill for fun. We’d be tempting targets for these games but bafflingly, orcas will avoid taking actions that will harm us. What stops an orca from capsizing a boat when a seal swims on board? What stops them from biting the funny hose that makes bubbles when encountering a scuba diver? What stops them from dragging us 1000 feet below the surface or throwing us into the air repeatedly until we’re nothing but a soggy tube of gristle and powderized bone? Theyre also known to rape and murder their own kind. Stories of calfs being killed by males to make the mother “available” and rogue orcas killing other orcas seemingly unprovoked but humans seem to be untouchable.
8:44 Seal - "Hey, human! I've heard that you eat penguins, so I p-p-p-p-picked up a penguin for you!" Human - "Thanks, but I think there's been some confusion, we only like the biscuits called "Penguins"!
"Despite being physically unimpressive." Don't underestimate the overpowered dexterity (mostly regarding hands) and almost unrivaled long distance stamina. These are argualby just as historically important in making humans a dominant species as intelligence. Stamina may not be that important anymore, but intelligence would be just as useless without dexterity as dexterity would be without intelligence. A lion wouldn't become more dangerous with a spear even if it had human intelligence, because it still couldn't use it effectively. Humans are not physically unimpressive, we just are not pysically powerful and dangerous in a traditional sense.
We actually are even impressive in an traditional sense, a heavyweight boxer punches with the force of a horses kick which is (with precision) enough to kill nearly every mammal. Also people tend to use dudes as comparison to animal strength, wich are physically and mentally unshape to kill, and simply never had to hunt or exercise for survival.
I've often wondered if someone of the most intelligent species would have evolved further if it had the ability to hold things. Just take away that ability and we'd be unable to develop any technology
@@tomlxyz yeah, I've thought of that too. I've heard somethin about dolphins being hypotethically smart enough to form societies similar to early human ones in complexity, but they don't have the hands to do it.
Back when humans actually had to fight for their survival, I do imagine we were physically much better off than the average specimen today. Relying upon our technology and intelligence likely caused a decline in other physical faculties.
@@tomlxyz it is not enough. Octopuses have that ability and yet there is no way ever they will form a civilization of any kind simply because they dont live long enough to actually meet and teach their kids, as they die rather fast after mating.
"Regular" dolphins are predators who seem to like human as well. There are a lot of stories of dolphins intentionally saving humans from shark attacks.
I reckon Orcas can pass down stories and knowledge. Maybe they know that we are effective at killing whales with our ships and harpoons, and there were cases of Orcas helping humans to hunt whales in exchange for part of the kill. Maybe the Orcas today have heard stories of humans that were whaling and know that we can work together but also know how dangerous we can be if we're enemies.
orcas 100% pass down knowledge, and since they have unique languages, probably stories in a really basic form, which convey enough info for them to know what to fuck with and what to run away from
Its honestly quite amazing to think that for as much as we ponder and study Orcas that they're staring right back trying to figure out the strange being in their waters.
4:26 "Orcas seem very fascinated with humans, and often spend a long time trying to figure us out" Seems the feeling is mutual, our fellow, highly Intelligent mammals 😅
I can speak on the first 2. Orcas. I have an acquaintance who was traveling by a small sailing boat and they were attacked by orcas. The orcas attempted to overturn the boat and also went after it with their teeth, ripping the rudder to shreds and immobilizing them, requiring them to declare an emergency to get rescued and towed to port. Allegedly it was done by a pod of orcas known to attack vessels, it might have something to do with humans going after them first and they're taking revenge. Wolves. I live in land that has always been and is still inhabited by wolves. It's not so much that they've "learned" humans are dangerous, but that we've exterminated wolves that approach human communities leaving only those genetically predisposed to avoiding us. As recently as the 1880s a group of wolves killed 22 children here. Since then there have been no fatalities and when wolves get courageous enough to enter human settlements, they're dealt with.
What if a fast power boat of some kind hit and killed a very young orca in their pod and it’s some kind of revenge against boats? Since a sailboat would be the only one they could attack. Like power boats hitting manatees in Florida. 🤔🤷🏼♂️
This is the benefit of genocide of entire races and species, and helping peaceful animals. This is why we do it even in the modern age like hitler where it is no longer relevant. We shape the evolutionary behaviour of other species through visual inspection of genetic similarities for our own survival. If a wolf bites you, call upon your entire community to go to war with the wolves, and genocide all of them, suffering huge casualties yourself. Instead of trying to run away, let any small conflicts erupt into full blown war of genocide, come back with an army and face the fear and exterminate the enemies. In time there are no more wolves and only sheeps. When a herd of cows get attacked by a few lions they just run away. When a herd of buffalos get attacked by a few lions they attack back.
I do wonder about those orca boat attacks. Is it revenge, or boredom, or curiosity, or some kind of predatory behavior like they might use on whales? We tend to be biased toward thinking about species as intelligent mostly if they act like us, but other species' motives are often inscrutable to us. Their cultures and languages unintelligible.
3:15. That's Dr Ingrid Visser in NZ. probably one of the most world renown scientists on the planet regarding Orca. She's named practically every Orca in these islands and of course they all know her quite well. Her work regarding these unprecedented creatures has taught the rest of us a LOT about their natural behavior.
@@Johnny69xxx I half way agree. She has had research published about Orcas, but said published research is outside of her "cause". She's against "captivity" but supports sea pens...which is captivity. She's a shining example of what happens when a scientist puts their personal beliefs ahead of science. It's like a mathematician that's also a creationist. That mindset, to include her ignorance, killed a young orca named Bob. She is also a massive hypocrite as she profits off of partnering with a Norwegian snorkeling company that charges people to swim and pet wild Orcas. Which is reckless and dangerous to both humans and Orcas. Any claim from her should be taken with a mountain of salt, because she routinely appears on documentaries (after collecting her appearance fee, yes activists, she does charge one) and makes unfounded claims based on photographs. She's not a total fraud, but a fraud none the less.
@@Johnny69xxx yes she’s an activist and a expert. Just because she’s one doesn’t mean she can’t be the other one too. She has been studying orcas for over 30 years so idk how you come to the conclusion that she isn’t an expert. Everybody should be fighting against the cruelty we do to these incredible animals.
Friends had a rock python who was so cool, I wanted one. When I finally found one for sale, it was curled up in the back of the cage, daring me to stick a hand in. Reflected that even within the same species, different animals have different personalities / temperaments.
The orca was the only 1 I could think of. Never imagined a leopard seal to be on the list and the wolf was somewhat surprising as well. Awesome vid though mate
I actually always kinda got wolves though it's more an old inscint that makes us fear and caution wolves...since well they are basically one of humanities biggest rivals in the early days.
I imagine its mostly a combination of rarity(most wild animals probably meet a human once or twice at most), intelligence recognition, uncanniness, and the fact that we are relatively little food for most of these creatures. For wolves, something walking on two legs is probably pretty alien and frightening. I would equate it to meeting a strange dog in the wilderness, but it walks on two legs with a steady stride toward you, rather than fleeing. What would you do?
Wolves used to hunt humans. My guess is it was more something learned socially over the years. Any wolves that ended up killing humans would get wiped out in mass in retaliation.
My grandpa smoked 4 packs a day and was an alcoholic, he died at the age of 92, when I think about taste .... I can´t imagine any predator thinking my grandpa would make a good meal.
Most predators dont eat stuff that are just pure bones or simply "bad" for their diet or hard to digest. Some large cats like lions dont eat tiny birds, insects or even tiny mice.
Hmmm we may be 'soft and squidgy' in appearance but from the perspective of wild animals humans are a hell of a lot more dangerous than you'd think, not just because of our intelligence. Opposable thumbs, a bipedal stance and the ability to sweat are pretty unique advantages for a land animal. Not saying we're as adapted for fighting/killing as animals with weapons for hands, but we don't need to be - our general purpose nature makes us uniquely unpredictable/dangerous for any animal in a fight (never mind our ability to make weapons). We can outlast any animal on endurance and we exist almost exclusively in groups - groups which have a tendency to seek out and kill anything that eats our friends. Even if we were nutritious enough to warrant eating, we are definitely not a soft target.
People saying we're soft and squishy as if we're any different from humans 100 000 years ago. We just fast twitch strong muscle fibers for slow twitch endurance ones. We evolved to run and sweat, that was the entirety of the physical requirements to survive. The rest was thanks to tools and intelligence.
@@ddc2957 true, not many other animals have mastered projectiles, and only snakes have projectiles that are more dangerous (natural projectiles). A human with a basic throwing arm could kill a bear with a rock if it hits the right place
I think even our earliest ancestors would have been formidable to any threats or competition. Walking apes with fire, spears, and cunning plans. They've probably been removing competitors and threats for 3 million years and created a lot of instinctive caution against us. Even Lions show a lot of hesitancy and usually have to be conditioned into not being afraid of us e.g. lions in wildlife parks eventually can become aggressive and want to attack, if they've been exposed to humans all their lives. Kind of like how humans can overcome there instinctive fear of snakes, and handle them, with enough exposure and familiarity.
Wolves - strangely enough, Eurasian or European wolves have numerous accounts of attacks on humans, while North American wolves have few accounts of attacks on humans. As for the leopard seals, they Don't hunt us and do interact with divers, their curiosity can be "overwhelming", or so was told. Made 2 south trips on USCG breakers back in 80s
It is not strange about the North American vs Eurasian wolves, in our developed countries like US and Canada we require proof of such things thus no non rabid attacks, on the other hand Ivan after half a bottle of vodka says he was "attacked" by wolves in Siberia it is written down as "fact" just like it was a century ago in North America when drunken Fred said he was attacked by a wolf in Maine.
North American wolves are probably scared of us and frightened of out guns. However, they do attack in more isolated areas of the continent where they have little to no contact with humans.
The leopard seal that killed a human: "My fellow researchers, I have discovered that humans cannot survive being dragged down this far" *shows depth graph, everyone nods and takes notes* "I am still researching how far they can be dragged and survive but I need the support of the community!" A different leopard seal: "Nah, we're sticking with the, 'try to teach humans how to eat penguins' research. You just sound like a psychopath and should get help."
I find it quite adorable how menacing predators like orcas and leopard seals are just as fascinated with us as we are with them. While we are quite pathetic with how easy it is to kill us, these animals usually don’t feel the need to hurt us. Instead, they feel the need to figure out what we’re doing. While they do attack sometimes, I don’t see it as a reason to hate them. They’re animals, they are curious and sometimes that leads them to attack. They don’t have the same impulse control that most of us do.
Additionally large herbivores are generally far scarier than most predatory species. Predators are smart enough to evaluate prey and do some basic risk/reward calculations so when they see a human they try and do the math to see if the meat on our bones is worth the risk of us breaking their bones. Large herbivores on the other hand mainly defend themselves through shear bulk, and often have small brains since they just need to eacape and either running away or charging a predator are both valid options. (They also regularly fight eachother during mating season) And this is why the deadliest thing in Africa is the Hippo and not any of the predators most people are scared of. Even amoung domestic animals Horses and Cows are very capable of killing you, and while i don't have the statistics i expect they make up most of the serious injuries from domesticated animals, even more than "agressive" dogs. (Dog aggression is 99.9% how they are raised/trained/treated)
Wdym pathetic? If you're an athletic human being I don't think we are that easy to kill even in the wild lol. Our intelligence will give us an edge in every battle that's why we are the most successful species ever on this planet. Don't underestimate your body. Also our stamina is next to unbeatable in the wild just like wolves', we can jog and hunt animals for so long.
Is it me but my thought is that if orcas did hunt humans in the wild, then they’re so fast, smart and powerful that no one would ever know, the pod could take out a group of fishermen in a small to medium boat or group of divers within a fraction of a second and leave nobody to tell the tail.
I imagine they would be the single most dangerous advisory in the oceans if they decided to turn on people. With competition heating up for fish, this may become a real problem in the future. Similar to how Elephants in India become more violent around people due to habitat loss and lack of food. While I cannot see Orcas killing people for food, I bet Orcas who specifically rely on fish will become territorial towards people if their food finally becomes short in supply
OR..... They are so smart they know that if they get cought eating humans.... Humans will be taking revenge!!! 😉... 🤷♂️Who knows..., I personally thought dogs and cats were the smartest animals (because they are well treated)....... But (back than) I didn't knew dogs and cats get eaten in other (barbarian) cultures... So🤷♂️🤔?... In short the answer (most likely) is that you can't say for sure what others (or other species) think. For instance : you could think that I think other cultures are barbarian... And you would be right.... That is if... (and ONLY IF!!!) you consider my thoughts on western "culture"..., and let's say that: I don't hold it, me, him, them, us, umcle, father, grandad nor possible you in high regard if intelligence is a factor wich I have to grade on😉.... Lol.
Heard a story of some whalers not long ago was documentary on bbc 8 years ago or something they boat got overturned by orcas think they survived but a can’t remember much of the story just orcas sunk the boat was since the tribe
I'm surprised. I just told my husband the other day that wolves have NEVER killed a person In the Americas. I don't remember where I got this misinformation, but I should have looked it up before passing it on. I also completely forgot about rabies.
Me and a friend once camped out in the forest and were woken up by ants to find ourselves surrounded by a pack of wolves. We just laid there playing dead until they left and fell back asleep. I didn't even know my friend was awake to see them until the morning.
The leopard seal one is shocking to me. I am morbidly terrified of leopard seals for some reason, so knowing that they're actually just sea doggos like the other seals in the world just doesn't mesh well with my fear. I think my morbid fear comes from the fact that they have a lot of shark-like qualities to them while also having orca-like intelligence.
Don't get me wrong. They're absolutely terrifying and could kill us in a second. But, overall, they've been shown to be mostly curious as said in this video. If you want to be amazed, look up the photos from Nat Geo of the Leopard Seal bringing that guy penguins. It's insane.
We are talking about recorded attacks. I’m sure there are plenty of unrecorded attacks, or people “going missing” at sea or in the woods and never seen again. People tend to forget that nature is not your friend. Hell, even people predate on each other.
@@shin-ishikiri-no that’s not how that works and they would never be able to recognize a camera or what purpose the camera serves for the humans. Not that it even matters, because most recorded deaths are from SAR teams finding remains or straight up just reporting them dead if they can’t find anything. Cameras rarely find or catch animal attacks, let alone in the ocean of all places.
To be fair, any animal eating humans in the ocean would be, at best, a scavenger. We aren't exactly known for living in the sea for extended periods of time.
I always assumed that is because these predators are fairly intelligent and know that killing individual humans may be easy, but in the long run being a threat to humans isn't a viable survival strategy. Killing one unarmed human often results in many more, much better armed humans seeking revenge. I figured that this is the kind of stuff that their instincts tell sufficiently intelligent animals, as, after all, humans have been around for quite some time now as well and it makes only sense that other species have developed a rough understanding of what humans are and what they do. 🤔
Orcas are known to be vindictive, as well as blue whales for example. There are recorded instances of blue whales intentionally trying to capsize whalers in the 1800's for example, after they attacked their calf. Orcas have been showing to do the same, so there is some merit in this.
But that requires the individuals make decisions based on the whole species. An orca killing a human would be long gone before others could do anything about it
Instinct and curiosity might explain why leopard seals don't attack us--I'm a predator, and I don't try to kill everything I see, especially if it's new and interesting and I've never seen anything like it (and I don't know if it's good to eat or not!)--but Orcas know exactly what we are: both dangerous and not to be f**ked with, and fellow "Intelligent beings" (though that's a stretch when it comes to humans) who are more interesting as marvels than as food. We make boats and SCUBA gear ands even swim fins and such. To an intelligent non-manipulator, that must be fascinating. They know what we are, and that we are NOT food.
Orca’s don’t hunt humans because they acknowledge us as biggest assholes of the land while they are biggest assholes of the sea, game recognizes game.
I wouldn't have put it quite like that, but.....yeah.
based take 10/10
If we're being fair, we're probably the biggest assholes in the sea too.
have you seen what killer whales do? they kill everything and spare nothing heck they kill for why not reasons
This makes 100% sense
"See that son? That is called a human and is a predator like us. Its not as strong or fast as we are but its part of a VERY big pack and if you attack it the whole pack will come after you so always leave it alone" - wolf mom
in terms of strength and maneuverability we are actually more scary than bears from a wolves perspective. a fit fully grown human in fight mode can dislocate the wolves jaws or punch/kick the air out of it's lungs. with higher accuracy and less blind spots than a horse or deer. add a basic weapon like a thick tree branch we are 2x as deadly and un-reachable. in flight mode we can't run as fast but we can run far longer.
@@psionx1 unless they're fighting more than one wolf when you see one more are close by
@@psionx1 thats the thing with us humans, it don't matter if we can run longer than a bear, that bear is twice our speed and will catch up Long before that is ever a problem. Defensively, our speed leaves us vulnerable, offensively with persistence hunting no animal is safe on land.
exactly
They heard what we did to wolves and cats and decided they better leave us alone 😁😁
I have a feeling that the Leopard Seel death was not intentionally trying to kill but was an attempt to play. They are surrounded by creatures that can survive under water for long periods of time so probably had no idea humans couldn't do it
I think you could be right there, I had the same thought
i think that was also the case for tilikum, apparently it was playing with one of the divers body, tossing and dragging them around
@@theysaidimasian9766 I mean, perhaps the first time...
You'd think he'd know better by the third time.
I'm pretty sure the seal was just curious and didn't care about killing or not.
@@daandevos122 i mean its not so uncommo nthat htey also drowen seals ,penguins etc by playing around with them
so its prob like
oh no ,,,another toy ,,broke ,,, :( ......well ,,,lets find another one
Fun fact (probably unrelated):
A lot of wild animals don't really mess with humans because we look weird and creepy and we're bipedal
...really?
We don’t look weird and creepy, we are.
@@Astralopifthink about what animals most commonly come into contact with in the wild. Things usually fly or walk on all fours. We're the exception. Also, when an animal walks on its hind legs, it's usually a threat display. Picture a grizzly bear standing up on its hind legs to intimidate a human in the wild. "Look how big I am." We're kind of doing that display just walking around normally. We're weird looking and kinda big. Safer to avoid us
@@AstralopifI always thought about what a coyote or bear would see if a couple humans screamed at it and ran towards it with our long arms waving around, yelling weird shit, considering you’re eye level to our waists I feel like I’d be terrified of humans haha
@@clamcrewcarclub6017ive had the same thought about tigers, what would one do if a physically fit person showed not only a lack of fear, but extreme aggression and desire to kill, and started sprinting like a madman toward it. would it feel fear and flea? Would it attack? Would it be too confused to actually know what to do?
Orcas: "We have echolocation"
Humans: "We have nukes"
Orcas: "Have a nice day, sir"
"We have trawlers"
Ahhhhh all the more, have a nice day, humans.
One would imagine it's like how elephants avoid bees. Sure they're bigger and deadly one on one but man if you rile up that hive you're going to need to leave that area and not come back for a long while.
Nukes keep us on top 👍👍👍
Lisa: Nuke the whales? 🤔
Nelson: Gotta nuke somethin😏
I think the orcas are closer to ask for cooperation treaties rather than leave us alone lol
“Do we taste bad?”
Mosquitoes: *Explaining for 10 minutes without any ad breaks*
But mosquitos don't feed on every creature with blood. So they don't like the taste of all creatures either. They don't even feed on all people, they will select certain individuals and show preference for them based on smell and taste.
Every Mosquitoe that became a massive nicotine junkie after biting me be like:
The rangers holding euthanasia tranqs standing behind him: "say yes"
@@timothywootton5331mosquitos must love me then because I'm their biggest blood feeder.
@@nightprowler6336 I like to imagine they like biting me cause my blood is sweeter. (I'm diabetic lmao)
I shared an office at university with Kirsty Brown, the unfortunate victim of the leopard seal.
She was a very small woman and I imagine that wearing a black dry-suit would have looked similar to an emperor penguin.
She wasn’t dragged down and drowned, she was bitten on the back of the neck just as leopard seals do to penguins.
That's very eepressing.
thats a reason to not wear black suits there other camos that are better
I know it sounds weird, but in many areas, where bears got heavily hunted, they tend to stay away from humans even when they are not hunted anymore and the attacks are far less common than in areas, where bears didn't got intensely hunted. It faszinates that each generation of the offspring of those bears learned that humans are dangerous
Gotta wonder how we drive the fear of God into them without hunting?
Those monsters are really scary, especially with those sticks
@@jackhazardous4008 maybe their mothers taught them. I don't know.
It's probably some sort of instinct/gene in the brain. Bears with gene that gives them confidence to attack weird mammal that walks on two legs- gets killed, gene doesn't pass on. Bears without the gene that gives them confidence to attack weird mammal that walks on two legs- doesn't get killed, gene doesn't pass on and whatever brain function that tells them to avoid us gets passed on.
Brother bear
Orca: What’s that?
*A group of strange limbed hairless screaming things with sharp long things stabbing a giant whale and dragging it away every day for 20 years straight*
Orca: … yeah, I’m not touching that.
So we're basically just the crazy person on the subway to them, haha
Yeah and those hairless ship apes have been known to chop fins off sharks and leave them to die... And there's also all the other fishing we do... They're probably smart enough to know they don't want to be treated like those other sea creatures- "Listen to what momma says - act cute and nonthreatening when you see these murderous creatures around!"
@@moonlight4665 more like abducting aliens.
actually it was pretty common for whalers and orcas to hunt whales together. look up the "law of tongue".
@@CuteLethalPuppy Oh yeah, "act cute" - humanity's only weakness.
“They breed with females from other pods, and then go back to live with their mothers” sounds like a species I know…
lol
Couch walrus
🤣
Discord mods
@『GE_prav』🇺🇦 u think discord mods talk to women?
One thing that will always give you a decent edge over a lone predator is our aptness for ranged combat. Chuck a few decent sized rocks at a wolf, score a few hits and it'll be freaked out at how you're causing it pain when it itself isn't near close enough to retaliate. It will most likely retreat because you're not worth the risk.
I dont think most humans realize how insane the concept of throwing is, it might be even more impressive than our intelligence.
The ability to cause repeated ranged damage is something literally no other animal can do. Sure spitting cobras can spit a couple feet, and some insects can spray a bit but the ability to just pick up a rock and use it to cause major damage from far away is basically a super power. (Not even apes are not capable of throwing things remotely like humans)
Its more amazing than flying or any other abilities we consider to be impressive.
Wolves are shy by nature if you see a wolf it will likely run away but if it doesn’t it’s because there is 10 others behind you.
Wolves also seem to match themselves against an opponent and try to assess their chances of success early in the battle. If they realize they can't win, the tails start wagging and the tongue comes out -- they try to make friends.
There's a video somewhere on RUclips of a pack of wolves going against a Great Pyrenees protecting a flock of sheep. First they are fierce, then the alpha gets a look on his face like, "What are you doing! Can't you see my pups are hungry??!! Traitor!" Then one of them opens his jaws, attempting to get them around the pooch's neck, and realizes he can't come close. He then grins and pants, and a few seconds later the whole pack is trotting cheerfully around the fluffy dawg, as if saying, "Hey, that was fun! So do you think the hooman would hire us too???"😂
Well, in instances where orcas become stranded or trapped in shallow waters, humans often come to their aid. This assistance can include efforts to refloat the stranded orcas and guide them back to deeper waters. These rescue efforts may foster positive associations between orcas and humans, potentially contributing to a general lack of aggression.
It's not too far of a stretch considering their high intelligence, proven communication skills and ability to reason and coordinate attacks. Perhaps one day science will progress enough that we can actually interview one of them.
Conversely, getting trapped in fishing nets would harbor negative associations towards boats - not humans, boats - which might be why there are orcas attacking and even sinking boats near the Mediterranean
@@purrfekt i heard scientists are getting close to decode their language, the funny thing is that their language is like ours, they have several, not just one! Hence why they also have different cultures.
It's also important to note about that one and only wild orca bite on that surfer who survived:
If you get bitten by literally-an-orca, and you *survive,* then the orca wasn't trying to kill you. Who knows why it bit the guy, but it definitely decided not to kill him.
He just take a bite :)
For REAL. The thing is a tank-sized death machine. There wouldn't be a toe left of you for someone to realize something went wrong, just "lost at sea." I think we're all being a bit optimistic to believe they will _never_ eat a person.
It was a surfer so like a lot of Great White attacks it likely thought the surf board was a seal and when it got a taste of the human and went "Woah! That was not a seal WTF!"
@@SilvaDreams most likely a young one then. I'm sure it got a scolding from its mother later.
He was probably being a dick. Orcas are self aware. We don't classify them as the same level as us only becuase they don't use tools or build houses. Neither of which they would need in there native environments and they aren't equipped to leave the ocean. A true aquatic species would likely stay in the pre Stone age. As everything they need is either already there or a part of there body. We see this in dolphins and Orcas. As well as blue whales the largest preditor on the planet.
Fun fact: Not only do Orcas have complex LANGUAGES. They have dialects, and even engage in fashion trends. There was an orca trend where they wore dead fish as hats. Some even tried to revive trends, but it didn't work
Birds has dialects as well, even the small ones like the great tit
They are also taught what to eat, they don't just swim around eating everything. Things can be toxic or poisonous, pretty smart strategy.
@@Linda-jl5lx Supposedly the mass of bird calls you can hear in trees and stuff sometimes is even the group of birds living in or claiming it telling the new birds in the area that there's nowhere to live
The latest "fad" for orcas is is battering boats. Almost all done by male orcas.
Orcas are humans of the sea like crows are the humans of the air
The most interesting behavior I have seen in all of the animal kingdom is that the majority of predators avoid potential danger, and yet at the same time show an interest in the things that they don't deem worth hunting. It applies to any large intelligent predator in a remarkably similar way. I wish we knew more about all the other amazing life forms on this planet so we could understand how to properly communicate, and interact with them as well as gain more respect for our little blue dot.
Absolutely this. It pays for a predator to be both cautious - if one loses an eye or a canine tooth, for example, it could seriously impair their ability to hunt depending on the species - and curious. It makes a great deal of strategic sense to keep your options open but also to watch your six (and have your buddies do so with special species like dolphins and wolves). Many prey species are nearly as dangerous as the ones that predate upon them, and opportunity sometimes knocks on strange doors.
I mean it kinda makes sense right? Prey species don’t need to have much going on upstairs to survive well. They just gotta chew grass and run like hell. It doesn’t take much to outsmart grass. Predators’ curious nature is useful because it helps them learn how to utilise the environment to get a leg up on prey that are usually bigger and faster than they are
If you ask me, i think its Evolution, because wer humans practice "revenge" and we are realy good and effective at it,... Yes We are weak alone... With a suprise attack...
But oh boy, what comes after that, is not funny for the animal that did that.
Because when We take revenge and hunt them down... Yeah... For example Wolfs ... If every Pack that hunted humans got rotted out... That's leaves Only the ones that dont do that, and that is better for survival than hunting human, Evolution did what it Always does, the surving genes get passt down to the next Generation 😅
Only ever encountered 2 wolves, in Romania where I was on vacation in a wooden cabin by a forest lake. I was fishing as they approached and my Romanian friend who had a lot more experience told me to continue fishing. The wolves sat down about 50 meters from us and just watched us for about 15 minutes, I heard howling from somewhere else and the two wolves just vanished, unfortunately I did not have my smartphone with me as it was supposed to be a "no-electronics" vacation.
Salut!
More likely because we don't behave like prey. Our behavior is more like that of a poisonous animal. We actively approach the predator and maintain eye contact. It's not worth the risk to them.
That's a very good point. It's like when you see a mountain lion, you're supposed to stand tall and put your arms up to look bigger, and make noise.
I think most predators use ambush or chase tactics to avoid injury. If a predator gets hurt in the wild, it's game over for them, so they try to play it safe.
And we have gun
Yet, bears
Besides, some apex predators do attack predators, like the last one where none of its prey is a herbivore
@@user-kx4xs2xd3k We have Big Gun and Torpedos. Humans : 1 - 0 : Orcas
Orcas: Get some meet on you'r bone first
Wolf: Too skinny, not worth the effort
Leopard seal: Here have a penguin
*your
The “be friendly and cute” strategy has worked quite well for cats and dogs
@@adamhbrennan well seals are pretty much water dogs lol
What most people think: Orcas are smart enough to know not to mess with humans.
What I think: Orcas are smart enough to make sure that when they do kill a human the rest of us will never find out about it.
Those of us who went for evening to night time swims.
What makes humans dangerous is our ability to dish out vengance. We are very, very vengeful creatures. Even towards members of our own species....
I have heard this before, that is a great point.
I think with the orcas and leopard seals, it can be explained by the fact that we are not native to their natural habitat and because they are intelligent creatures they approach us more with a sense of curiosity and caution than a desire to hunt. I think wolves may have evolved to avoid humans instinctively after humans previously killed many of them and they probably also are intimidated by our upright stance as mentioned in the video. They may also acknowledge that we're not as nutritious a meal for a pack as a large deer and also not worth hunting individually when there are smaller, weaker animals to hunt like rabbits and such.
I think this is partly true for the orcas but not fully. They will eat moose. And I think we (especially now) interact with orcas in the wild just as much as moose do. But maybe they recognize us as intelligent and that combined with limited exposure makes a difference.
@@jakeryan4545 My bet is it's closer to the killer whales beaching themselves specifically for seal pups.
The moose regularly swim between landmasses in rivers that the killer whale pods regularly visit so the killer whales have had enough exposure to both the live and dead moose to identify them as food.
Yeah, I feel like leopard seals and killer whales don't hunt humans because they don't really know or understand us, but wolves don't because they DO know us. In fact, I don't think that any apex predator has quite the understanding of humans that wolves do.
I've heard a few stories about interactions between humans and leopard seals and for them in particular it seems that humans are kind of the equivalent of a cute little kitten... They largely seem to treat humans in the way a person would treat a kitten.
@@eluminaryxarrais7735 That's interesting, never really thought about seals having notions like 'cute' maybe I don't give them enough brainpower credit?
Some of the most dangerous animals to humans aren't even predators.
Like deer. They’re herbivores, but they cause millions of car accidents each year, and many are fatal.
Rhinos, cape buffalo, hippos...
@@edwardtu79themixedcontentctr While Human is the most dangerous creature to most animals.
ticks, fleas, mosquitos...
@@Flufux don’t forget moose.
Apex predator cub: mom, why don't we hunt these weak, puny, slow creatures, aren't we apex predators?
Mom: that's how we stay apex, son.
Funny fact about humans: we have stomach acid roughly the same strength of scavenger species. Vultures and such.
Even lower than other omnivores, which we are and omnivores have stronger acid than carnivores, who in turn have stronger acid than herbivores. A strange evolutionary adaption considering we haven't likely often eaten rotten food commonly for potentially hundreds of thousands of years.
Orcas don't only hunt 'fish' when going into rivers etc near Alaska, they hunt MOOSE.
Orca is one of the few natural predators of the moose.
they dont really hunt moose. moose would just go swimming to eat some of the underwater plants and they get hashtag'd by an Orca
@@nathanjones411 casual geographic?
@@Passions5555 ofc
@Nathan Jones love that guy! 🥰
*meese
Why wolves stay away from humans:
Wolf A: What about that tasty looking critter?
Wolf B: Where?
Wolf A: Over there! The one on two legs.
Wolf B: Are you nuts? Never, ever go near one of those!
Wolf A: What do you mean? It doesn't look that dangerous...
Wolf B: You have no idea. Do you see the dachshund and chihuahua with it?
Wolf A: You mean that weird sausage creature and the furry flea?
Wolf B: Yes!
Wolf A: Um... They don't look very dangerous, either...
Wolf B: You don't get it. Those were wolves, until the two-legs got hold of them!
Wolf A: Yelp! /*vanishing in the distance*/
That's a good point.
Becarful or we will breed you with you mom and sisters till we have monstrous genetic freaks that will be unrecognizable to your kind.
Forgot to mention what men do to their ballsacks
You'd think one whiff and they'd be like, " Eeewwww, no thanks!"
European wolves aren't particularly afraid of humans. The winter of 1450 Paris was under constant fear of wolf attacks, up to and including the city market itself.
During ww1 the Germans and Russians had a temporary ceasefire to hunt down the wolf packs that were killing and eating men in the trenches.
@@W1ldSm1le Wolves have been heavily hunted since 1450. The bolder individuals were killed off. Also, keep in mind, people have always been prone to exaggeration. The wolf was the monster in myth and folklore; no other animal that actually existed has a reputation like that. How many attacks would it take, to put a city in fear?
As for WWI, the wolves weren't hunting men. Men were killing men, and the wolves were scavenging on the corpses that were left in no-man's land. You see, there's only so much dead and rotting flesh you can leave around, before even the most timid scavengers will be drawn in.
Of course, this was very unfortunate for anyone who'd be shot to pieces, but was somehow still alive, abandoned in the darkness and mist, unable to defend themselves or flee.
Today, attacks by European wolves are beyond rare.
when it comes to wolves not hunting us, I think a big part of it comes from a while back when there was a bounty on wolves, which lead to a lot of them getting picked off by humans, it may have become instinct to avoid humans because of this
Sincerely appreciate the time it took the author to remain on the subject of Orca. They definitely deserve it.
One reason wolves don't hunt humans is that over the centuries, the bold animals that would be more likely to attack have been removed from the population leaving only the skittish and wary animals to reproduce. This would have changed the behaviour of wolves and they would instinctive avoid humans.
Nah we domesticated the more curious ones leaving the more skittish ones alone lol
The alpha knows not to mess
@@thomaseriksen6885 Kinda the same point
@@thomaseriksen6885 My point is only the non aggressive ones survives and those that are aggressive dies.
Dont care what you think about genetics
@@thomaseriksen6885 They are not aggressive toward humans. Its genetics and natural evolution.
The fact that humans don't have sharp claws and teeth doesn't mean they're not threatening. It means that they're so threatening that the minor advantage provided by leaving those structures behind was stronger than the overwhelming advantage that those structures provide to many predatory animals. It's not a weakness, it's the flex of an apex predator.
Good point.
That's a very interesting view point👍
Humanity - nature's greatest flexer.
Humans are actually not an apex predator but just a realyl bad scavenger
no joke cuase if oyu kill a cow ,pig etc and would try to eat the meat right after its to tough for us to eat and it would not taste good in our opinions
so it have to hung for (depending on the meat) 2-9 weeks or even more
technically starting to rott
so we can actually eat and digerst it properly
but thats not how predators work ,,, theyx kill and eat it sure they will also scavenge but they still be able to digest frehsly killed meat with no trouble
the next thing is that when you kill an animal you have to prepare it properly like letting it bleed out etc otherwise the taste and quality will suffer
its another point of showing that we are just really bad scavengers
prob we are not much diffrent from a Creyfish or Crab
munching most of our time on plant matter but take any chance we got to get on a carcass and try to make a kill from time to time
would also explain why concuming to much meat /animal products makes our bodys actually sick
cause if crabs/greyfish consume to much meat/animal stuff they will also get sick and die younger then the ones munching mostly on plant matter
That’s terrifying
Another theory is we are a relatively "boney" species. Other predators didn't evolve to view us as prey for a number of reasons that essentially boil down to: "Not being worth the effort."
Well yeah. We’re just so different to everything else, that it invites unnecessary risk. Think about what we look like from an orca’s or a wolf’s perspective. We move and breathe and make sounds like everything else. We have families and communicate like they do. But why are we holding odd objects? Why are we covered in strange material? Where do we come from before we leave our strange, loud, indestructible boxes? We’re unbelievably dangerous, but also fragile. We’re cruel and kill for no reason, but also can show great kindness and curiosity like they do. We’d be uncanny because we’re obviously living animals with much in common, but also are strange in ways that absolutely nothing else is. I’d be terrified, yet curious too
In the same way we would look at benevolent, yet selfish aliens
I have always thought it was that predators expect fear in eyes of their prey. A leopard meets an antelope and senses the antelope knows it will be killed. If a leopard meets a human it can somehow sense that the human is thinking - "That's just what I need. A leopard skin coat!".
Wolves:
I experienced in the wilds of Northern Ontario, that the Timber Wolves leave us well alone.
I have been surrounded by packs of Wolves and it was very obvious that they were curious.
When their curiosity was satisfied, they just left quietly.
All predators are naturally afraid of us, cuz we're not a part of their natural habitat. The only exception is crocodiles, who will eat ANYTHING that wanders too close.
That sounds terrifying
It was , once the pack was sure it was a human the flead the human didn't
Yup...Truth Fritz...2 friends ad I in a tent in Banff...at night...same experiences...wolves were cal ..do we're we..no fight needed
Fool! Look into the Russian wolves in the war. They effigy up.
I would add that most orcas have very specific prey items on their menu that they specialize in hunting, and often don’t target animals not on the list. They build routines and practices for their specifies prey items. For obvious reasons humans don’t provide enough opportunities to build those practices, so there’s one reason they approach people with curiosity rather than a hunting attitude.
That makes sense, I myself would not eat any meat from animals that looks very different than the one I used to eat, unless in a desperate situation. (So... no reptiles, rodents, exotic animals, etc)
If only they know that basically anything works on humans.
That's almost certainly their #1 reason.
This is very true. We think of them as generalists because overall they eat such a wide range of marine life. But as he said each pod has their own culture and their own specialties in hunting. It's pretty narrow niche partitioning, though they are also very intelligent and might well check out a novel source of prey and/or entertainment.
true, but that doesn't really explain why no human got ever seriously _hurt_ by wild orcas. there are many animals which don't consider humans as prey (think herbivores) but still are very dangerous for humans and even constantly cause a number of deaths (e.g. hippos). orcas don't. why? I would be very nervous and fear for my health if I were to encounter a rhino but I would feel quite safe in the company of an orca.
I remember this incident where I lady was swimming just offshore and small group of orcas showed and was trailing behind.
The interesting thing about it was, theyre behavior looked similar to ordinary dolphins being curious. Though some did seemed to give a slight nibble on her foot, that was really the only "hostile" behavior.
Snorkeling in Antarctica.
There's your sign.
Darwin.
I heard about a theory that if orcas communication and intelligence is as advanced as some people think they could easily pass down stories from the times of whaling when it was not unheard of for orcas to help whalers catch whales in return for the carcass once the whalers got the oil and whatever else they hunted them for. And even tell their offspring what we are capable of with our ships should we become enemies.
Personally I think its a mix of passed down behavior from the older members of the pod who might have encountered humans with positive outcomes and a intelligent fascination with us for being utterly alien from the sea. They are so intelligent that they might be able to grasp the concept that there is a world unknown to them on land and interacting with humans is a way to sate some curiousity about it. Either way I hope that I get to swim with some one day.
Lone Orcas have been known to seek out human contact
I though whalers hunted Orcas too.
@@jazz3911 Only if the orcas were somehow interfering with the hunt.
Orcas are much faster than the large whales, therefore harder to catch. Also, only one side of their brain sleeps at a time, so they're harder to sneak up on. When you add in the much smaller amount of blubber an orca has (an average humpback weighs 5 times as much as the largest known orca), it's simply not worth the whaler's time to hunt orcas.
There are cases of whalers, seal hunters and fishermen trying to kill orcas, mostly because the orcas were seen as competition. Every seal, whale, or fish the orcas kill is one less for the humans.
@@rogerrabbit80 i see, thanks for the info man 👍
I dont get why people wanna risk their life to swim with killing machines. Stupidity.
I remember watching a documentary about why lions are scared of humans. I forgot if it was just at a certain location or if it was in general. It said, for thousands of years the lions that did hunt humans were killed by our ancestors and the ones that ran away from us were able to reproduce more thus passing on their traits. Maybe the same thing happened to the wolves. The aggresive ones got killed while the friendliest ones got tamed.
Well the tamed ones are the modern day dogs.
The masai. They still walk through and lions run. Bug only them. From a rites of passage that requires them to kill a lion being given only a spear and dagger.
It’s ingrained in them to fear the masai.
I’ve read that due to lion population being threatened they no longe partake in that ritual/custom whatever u wanna call it
@@josephdancer1401 Yea, the Masai is definitely one of the tribes causing lions to fear humans rather than hunt.
Nope lion's won't run from humans
@@josephdancer1401 aye from Kenya here. I can confirm that you're right
It's very rare but there have been cases of wild wolves killing people.
The fact that pretty much all big marine mammals rarely if ever (I've never heard of it ever happening) eat people is pretty incredible though. Even the rare occasions when they do hurt or kill someone it's almost always an accident. Think how terrifying it would be if they did intentionally hunt us down!
Orcas used to hunt humans until a particularly vicious pack ran right into Chuck Norris. In exchange for sparing the species, they are holding up their end of the bargain.
To make a slight correction;
while it is tempting to say humans are physically unimpressive, what allowed humans to begin prospering and further develope in the first place was our impressive long distance stamina thanks to our ability to sweat.
By sweating to cool our bodies, humans have virtually instant recovery times when compared to other mammals. Early human hunting packs could track and chase large prey animals over miles until their prey simply couldn't continue. We would just follow our prey until it was too tired to move. This ability not only made us some of the most terrifying and diligent predators in Earth's history, but in my opinion is equally as powerful as our intelligence.
@@charles2521 Steroids and Cardio are a deadly combo. Thats the problem.
@@charles2521 coalition does not mean causation.
Endurance hunting being a main hunting strategy for humans is a misconception. Humans have been mostly ambush hunters and chasing over long distances is rarely worth the time and energy. Not only do you need to have the ground be in perfect condition for tracking, you expend a lot of water and need to be able to bring all that meat back. To top that off, only the most fit of people could pull hunts like that off.
To cite a source, here is an excerpt from "Why are humans good at endurance running? The answer is murky." By TIMOTHY F. KIRN/UNDARK on Popular science:
"The idea of ancient humans as persistence hunters, possessed of superior physical capability, has a certain romance about it and has become very popular with running enthusiasts. Some scientists suggest it can explain several of the evolutionary traits humans have acquired over the past two million years. There may be some groups who practice it even today, though that’s hotly debated. Despite the idea’s foothold in popular culture, however, there is no hard evidence that ancient humans were persistence hunters, much less that persistence hunting shaped evolutionary traits. In fact, what evidence there is doesn’t support the notion that early humans acquired their meaty meals through feats of running endurance; it flatly contradicts it."
Another excerpt:
"Bunn recognized a golden opportunity. “We don’t usually get such clear-cut evidence to test something from 2 million years ago,” he said. He and Pickering thought that if they could age the different animals in that collection, they could glean whether the animals were scavenged, persistence hunted, or hunted some other way. If the animals had been scavenged or captured by persistence hunting, they likely would have been either very young or very old. Savanna predators like lions and leopards don’t chase the healthiest, fastest animals of a herd-and presumably persistence hunters wouldn’t either. Rather, they’d chase the ones that are easiest to catch.
But the researchers found that most of the animals in the collection were either young adults or adults in their prime. Of the 19 animals they could identify, only four were very young or old.
To Bunn and Pickering, that suggested the animals hadn’t been chased down. And because there were butchering marks on the bones with the best meat, it was also safe to assume that animal carcasses hadn’t been scavenged by humans after being killed by other predators; the predators surely would have taken the prime portions for themselves.
"Instead, Bunn believes ancient human hunters relied more on smarts than on persistence to capture their prey. In his paper with Pickering, he suggests that our ancestors would wait in brushy, forested areas for the animals to pass by. They may have even hidden in the branches of trees, since hooved animals tend not to look up. That would have allowed the hunters to get close enough to club the animal with a sharp object."
Nobody will read this whole thing, but I think dispelling misconceptions is a good thing.
@@trulyinfamous holy smokes, thank you for this comment! I had no idea about this and its immensely interesting! While i think it is wrong to assume perssitence hunting was absent in primitive hunting strategies (especially in areas with open terrain and little cover), i do admit it i was a bit foolish in assuming this would be our predominant strategy given our intelligence. Early humans would have been foolish not to take advantage of this intelligence to plan ambushes and other complex hunting strategies.
I have to admit i would like to do more research on the topic before being swayed either direction but i thank you for taking the time to contradict my point and educate me on the subject! Thank you again!
Don't forget opposable thumbs and the ability to throw objects (gorilla's can't throw stuff very far)
It´s scary to think that while we study orcas and leopard seals, they study us too. Maybe not in a complex way but still...
What if orcas pass on information about humans to other orcas? That would mean that the more we learn about orcas, the more they learn about us.
even if that were true, we'd learn quicker.
Would explain why they leave us alone. It seems to be mutual (mostly.)
Shane Lawrence, we're not debating the speed of their learning, but the fact that they learn very close to our level. Respect to the 1 animal we fear for all the wrong reasons.
They do, to an extent. But there's not a lot of interaction between different orcas living in separate areas.
I think that would only mean they learned a long time ago to not make an enemy of humans
Nature channel: do we taste bad?
Nature rangers: standing behind him with a euthanasia needle, nodding at the animal telling it to say yes
I’m surprised alligators weren’t on this list, despite the rare attacks, they do not actively hunt people
We’re too big for most alligators. Crocodiles aggressively eat humans because they are so much bigger than gators.
I like the fact that the primary reason for not being hunted is basically we're not worth the effort. We're easy kills but actually the hassle would exceed the benefit.
Are we easy kills? Humans have successfully hunted all 3 of these apex predators.
@@greenwave819 don't think that matters. Yes, we might be able to kill them but that doesn't mean it's also not easy to be killed by them. Same way as we've successfully invented machines to be able to fly in the air but that doesn't mean if I fall from the sky I won't make a large and bloody crater in the ground when I land.
@@greenwave819 without weapons
@@greenwave819
Innocent people are yeah. But if it happens and continuously hunting squads will go out and hunt the killer whales. Killer whales will know they will be slaughtered if they step out of line they're not stupid
@@user-rv6cx3rz7t uhhmmm....even without weapons Humans is Highly Dangerous Why "FIRE" when we learn to make Fire its Game over its the Main Reason why we Flip the Food Chain and we become the Super Apex Predator in the land.
I think with orcas they have a strong cultural memory and they remember us from the whaling days. Though we didn’t really hunt them they definitely saw us at work on their larger cousins. In fact down in Eden NSW Australia a pod of killer whales allied themselves with a whaling company to cooperatively hunt baleen whales.
imagine humans with dog levels of domesticated orcas
It was sort of a cooperative thing as I understand it. The whales wanted the tongue which the whalers didn’t want and both groups were able to make the kill with much less risk. This being old school whaling days with towing boat and hand thrown harpoons.
Whalers have caught killer whales. The Soviets caught 900 in a single season in the Antarctic one year. Generally though they're not targeted.
What cousins? Orcas are dolphins, they were called killer whales as the shorter version of killer of whales, some literally hunt down blue whales they aren't scared of us they are just used to eat the same things and also they probably don't know if we might be poisonous because we have never been on their menu
They're animals.. they have no culture.. culture by it's very definition is human only as well.. next I'm sure you'll be saying boys are girls too..
In regards to the intro, it's maybe worth pointing out that humans actually are pretty physically impressive compared to other animals in at least one regard: We're basically the track and field superstars of the animal kingdom. We're not the fastest by any means, but thanks to our exceptional stamina, if you make the race long enough a decently fit human will leave most other animals in the proverbial dust.
Yeah we're not the largest, strongest or fastest, but we're not the smallest, weakest or slowest either. Being bipedal we appear tall to many other predators and this tradeoff of speed/acceleration for endurance means humans will indeed leave EVERY other animal in the proverbial dust with the exception of the ostrich (also bipedal), but that is debatable depending on the distance covered (e.g. marathon vs ultramarathon).
Besides having by a long way the most advanced brains, toolmaking ability and ability to communicate, humans also have the best throwing mechanism on the planet, making us by far the most adaptable and effective ground hunters on the planet.
Given how widespread Wolves and humans are, social creatures and with similar hunting tactics, it’s no wonder why we ended up bonding.
One thing I'd add because vids like this always seem to not mention- humans got where we are not only because of our intelligence and tool use, but because of our complex social behaviours. A lone human in the wild is pretty vulnerable, but multiple humans working together can scare away even the most dangerous natural predators.
It's similar for cetaceans (whales and dolphins), and to some extent also for wolves, so they also have evolutionary pressure to communicate quickly and reliably in ways that the prey doesn't understand. This is probably why cetaceans appear to also have complex languages, and why dogs, while not having language, are still amazingly good at communicating with humans.
There’s an archeologist/anthropologist (I don’t quite remember) who said that the earliest sign of civilization isn’t something like tool use or agriculture as one might expect. It’s a healed femur, because it’s the kind of injury that you can’t survive without a lot of help. If you live past the injury long enough for the bone to heal, it means that someone carried you to safety, tended your wound, watched over you, brought you food for weeks or months, etc. Caring for one another is where civilization begins.
A human is not the fastest but it will run the longest other animals expend alot of energy to run .humans can literally run prey to death
@@auntvivienne8669 i believe it was an archeologist. There was a fossil discovery a couple years ago and they found it had a healed break, which was a big deal because it was evidence that species was somewhat intelligent, at least on par with canids (this was a million year old fossil though, not a dino)
@@auntvivienne8669 Indeed, well put. Empathy is the foundation of civilization.
Seals are a group that I'm shocked haven't been domesticated at any point in history. They're basically water dogs and would fit the equivalent role dogs hold for hunters but tailored to fishermen instead
Seals can't really hunt for someone else they eat the prey right away (krill or fish)
Leopard seals are the exceptions, being the only one eating warm blood preys but they are solitary animals that don't even really accept the presence of other leopard seals so good luck to domesticate it ;)
Easy answer... Were land animals... How to domesticate a wolf? Steal a puppy, bring it home where youre safe from mama wolfs revenge, raise it in your backyard, feed it with stuff you have around you. Easy right?
How to domesticate a leopard seal? Build a house near water, build a boat that is big enough to support you for a couple of days to go hunting for leopard seal babies, steal the baby and survive the attack of mama seal while being in a tiny wooden boat out on the open sea... Hope no storm hits you while being on the sea... Hope you dont spring a leak... Hope your food and water dont get spoiled by anything so you starve to death or dehydrate... Bring it home, build a huge water basin or fenced off part of the sea, go out fishing every goddamn day to feed it and eventually youll get a domesticated leopard seal.
After that you start realizing that you have been fishing all the time and cought enough fish to feed yourself and a hundrets of pounds seal, so the seal starts to feel really useless all of a sudden... You could have eaten all the fish and sold whatever you got left somewhere for money or treats...
Domesticating seals would have been a pain in the arse and dangerous, cause at that times tens or hundrets of thousands of years ago when we started domesticating animals, every kind of water was a dangerous place for humans to hang around. Especially the oceans. Cows, wolfes and big cats were basically easy to catch right in your front yard, so no need to go to the ocean to domesticate something you have almost no access to.
And at that time we actually had boats and could actually domesticate sea creatures, fishing skills were already so good developed, that it made no sense to domesticate something to catch fish for you, if you had towlines where you could catch dozens of fishes at once.
If you want to know more, theres some exelent documentaries about how humans domesticated animals...
I wish our ancestors hadnt been that affraid of sabertooth cats, they just killed them off when they saw them, but theres speculations if at some point humans did actually domesticae sabertooth cats for hunting. Problem with that theory was, wolfes are roughly the size and weight of humans, so if it decides for some reason it has enough of your domestication efforts, its easy to fend off an angry wolf. Good luck trying fending off an angry 800 pound sabertooth tiger thats fed up with your bullshit or doesnt want to share its prey with you. Guess same goes for cavebears, could have been domesticated, but you know, 12 feet long, 2000 pounds... As an early human you start wondering the "maybe benefits" are worth the risk...
@@KaotikBOOO I mean, didn't wolves eat their food right away at first too? Dogs still often do if you don't train them otherwise.
@@nitro8529 I mean, you probably wouldn't be going for leopard seals given how far away their hunting territories are - you'd be going for easier finds like grey seals and the like which would also be easier to feed and control due to their smaller size plus you could just grab a stranded/abandoned pup from your local beach - unlikely they'd grab a guarded one though as grey seals can 'sprint' up to 35 km/h (so unless you're an olympic sprinter, you aren't gonna get away) plus seal pups being left unguarded isn't too rare.
That said, to add to your point, the important thing for domestication isn't 'steal a puppy, bring it home' but to have *many* puppies to eventually start a breeding stock that isn't gonna incest-itself to extinction in a few generations and that's a significantly larger slice of your catch (average grey seal eats about 5kg of fish per day, multiply that by a minimum of 4 and you could feed a family of 5 for a week from a single day of their diet). Also, aside from pelts (for which prey animals are generally better anyway), wolves and cats aren't really good for anything as their meat isn't exactly known for it's deliciousness; seals on the otherhand have been hunted for their blubber and meat for thousands of years, making them too valuable as prey to be a companion predator and too predatory/aggressive to be domesticated prey. Final reason; wolves helped man hunt more/larger prey than they might otherwise have been capable of whereas seals don't typically hunt prey larger than themselves, so it doesn't give you any more options even after all that investment.
All this is to say, dogs and their ancestors were perfect for ancient man in a way no other animal can replicate and should be cherished as the good boys/girls they are/were.
There are stories of domesticated seals in alaska that died off as a result fo a series of hard winters.
There is also some evidence that neolithic peoples on the baltic coast domesticated seals but at some point the practise disappeared.
Cannibals would disagree
Orcas trying to push over Boats is just their way of saying "Get of me lawn"
Orca's are VERY common in the northwest coast of North America. And many people have encounters with them where they simply come up to check the person out. Many people using simple things like paddle boards or kayaks report encounters with Orcas. There is even footage of an Otter jump on someones boat to escape an Orca and the Orca not harassing the boat.
Sharks leave people alone almost all of the time as well. Those rare times they attack are usually test bites because they are not sure what we are.
@@Tugela60 that's not completely true. It depends on the age and size of the shark. Bigger/older sharks know what they are doing for the most part. If they are biting you, it's usually either territorial or it wants to consume you (they may be desperate for food). Smaller/younger Sharks definitely have been shown to display behavior where they attack people because of mistaken identity... But the idea that generally Sharks only attack people because of mistaken identity is a myth that gets perpetuated in popular media. If you actually look at the recorded shark attacks through history, there are numerous cases of Sharks actively hunting humans and eating them alive. In these cases, I guess someone could argue the first bite was an accident, but when it comes to the the second and third bites, that theory goes out the window. These attacks are rare relative to human/shark interactions, but they are within the range of potential outcomes.. whereas a human's relationship to Orcas is completely different. Orcas do not want to eat you, there's no evidence to suggest they do.
It's a rare occurrence for humans to be treading water in the open ocean in the first place.. when a boat capsizes and leaves people stranded for example, the fear of sharks is justified, because you are a floating easy meal.. sharks that attack people stranded at sea know what they are doing.. they will avoid large groups of people conjugated together in favor of trying to pick out stragglers.. if they are in the area and they are hungry enough, they'll have a go at you. None of this is an accident.
@@waynetables6414 Man eating sharks while a thing that happens from time to time are still pretty much the minority. Humans are a Horrible source of sustinance as the amount of bones compared to flesh and fat is pretty high basicaly we are the worst thing to eat for large predators as we are basicaly filled with stuff they can´t digest and a low in nutrational value food on top of it. Add to that that humans are spitefull prey with the dexterity to attack weak spots like eyes or other sensory organs we are realy not worth it
The northwest coast of North America is one of the areas that they are the least common in. They are starving because the salmon are dying off. Look it up.
@@ericcampbell9470 That's the Southern Resident population in Washington state. The Northern populations are growing. With 300+ whales in BC and 2300 in Alaska. Look it up.
Orca dad:
You know those seals with the real long thin flippers that go riding around on those magic floating rocks, it's best not to mess with them.
Wolf dad:
Don't ever mess with that kind of monkey, they can kill you with thunder or turn you into one of their mutant slaves or even a pug.
Meanwhile Bears: "Auwghhhh" *kills*
Lmao 🤣
Gorilla dad: See those very strange looking monkeys? They're cool with us until they piss us off. But even then we don't stand a chance against them. We just don't.
@@yo_mi if dangerous why friend shaped?
@@yo_mi
Bears actually avoid humans if they have the option. Catching a spear or javelin (or these days, a bullet) can permanently cripple them.
Just like us, somewhere in the leopard seal world, a young curious seal is listening to another seal talk about how fascinating humans are, and how we don't hunt them, but are just curious most times😊
Tigers and Crocs be like hold my beer, I’m gonna go get one of those tall chickens
A Scottish wildlife ranger told me a story of something that happened to him and some friends who were out canoeing in the Atlantic. They were approached by a pod of orcas who circled them. They pulled all their canoes together and started praying. The whales kept circling them for nearly an hour, getting very close and looking them in the eye. Eventually they got bored and swam off. Quite an experience!
It could be they were protecting the group. They have been recorded protecting kayakers from sharks
@Phonix fire I have...
They're actually dolphins, not whales. I'm not trying to correct you, just adding an interesting fact.
@@kennybadger Why? Why would they do that?
I was fishing on a beach on the east coast of NZ a couple years ago and a leopard seal was just chilling in the sand dunes. We thought it was exhausted and baking in the 32 degree sun so we poured sea water on it and it slowly made its way back to the sea as we did it. It seemed genuinely pleased.
in your use of the word 'genuinely', ask yourself "does this word help change the meaning of the sentence?" It seemed pleased vs it seemed genuinely pleased. Succinct writing is smart writing!
@@greenwave819 woah! Grammar class outa nowhere
@@greenwave819 I genuinely think it does add some meaning 😂
@@greenwave819 It does change the meaning. The leopard seal was pleased to the fullest degree. Ask yourself, “Is my comment necessary?” Pretentious commenting is annoying commenting!
@Green Wave, I hate the comments that write "would of" or "there" when they mean "they're," but adding an (in your opinion) unnecessary adjective or adverb is no reason to comment. If people took your advice, there would be some pretty boring work out there. No poetry. No interesting novels. Just the boring old facts.
One theory I have heard that is that humans don't actually taste bad to predators, but we smell as if we WOULD taste bad. Animals which have eaten humans once are many times more likely to do so again.
Domestic dogs on the other hand hunt humans regularly, not for food, but to play a strange game that involves holding a ball but not letting the person touch it, even though they chase it when thrown.
Orcas are incredible creatures. the fact they marvel at us instead of use us as a volley ball like they do to seals and sharks is kinda confusing to me. when I first learned they aren't whales but big dolphins it kinda makes more sense (even though orcas are known to hunt other dolphins) they are naturally curious creatures who have always been curious and playful with humans. I think it's also a blessing they don't hunt us or else past people would have likely drove them to extinction.
They fear us. As all apex predators do.
If you look up orca taxonomy, you will see that they are Odontoceti, toothed whales.
Yeah if there’s anything in the world that tried to go after humans as prey we’d do anything in our power to eliminate them. So far the closest any other animal can get is mosquitos which aren’t usually life threatening on their own and hippos but they’re just defensive assholes 😂 a very surprising amount of people have been killed because of them.
@@totallynotafanficreader7850 it's not the mosquito that ends up killing humans it is the parasite(s) they infect us with. But for sure those little bastard do hunt us fearlessly and successfully.
I believe they were hunted in the past and they're so smart they developed the sense to stay away from us
I just realised how similar leopard seals are similar to cats in terms of behaviour : both bring dead animals to people as a sign of friendliness, both like to toy around with their prey ( and when it comes to big cats like pumas then both could be a man eater but usually are chill and just mind their business). and it wloud seem that leopard seals wloud have more dog-like behaviour since canines and pinnipeds are distant relatives.
Pinnipeds*
@@totallynot572 sorry ( got the spelling wrong)
@@indyreno2933 that's what I meant by calling them "distant relatives"
I feed seals, and can confirm they act like dogs and are very cute
same haha i literally said to myself "that's so wierd! they're like cats!" and then scrolled down to the comments and saw this
How ominous was the "there could still be an incident in the future when one Orca decides to take a bite..." Granted, Gladys is not taking bites, she's sinking entire ships 😅
20 years ago in Northern India, there was a pair of wolves who started a new pack and had a litter that killed 10s of children. They terrorized remote jungle villages for years before they were shot down along with their pups who had learned to hunt human children, and sothey do not pass this trait to other wolves they mate with and their own pups.
0:14 Actually, human jaws are actually very strong for their size. Unfortunately, your teeth will often break before you can use full force, and your brain will usually prevent you from biting with full force, the same way it prevents you from easily biting off your finger.
But then we look at the gorilla and we lose all confidence in our bite strength. Pretty sure gorilla bite strength is in the top of the top 10 strongest bites in the animal kingdom, over 1000 psi. It’s why they’ve got such tall heads, and why they likely won’t evolve larger brains in the foreseeable future: they have crazy big jaw muscles and structure that anchors all the way up their heads.
@@water3602 our bite force varies from region in the mouth as well your molars can exert something like 8-10x of our front teeth
My theory for orca and seal:
Imagine you are sitting in your backyard and you saw an animal you never encountered before. It seems harmless and doesn't look like the stuff you normally eat. Now what would you do?
I think many of us, might want to play with it or even try to feed it if you had a bread in your hand (let's forget about that "do not approach wild animal" rule for a minute).
Long story short, curiosity.
i mean, humans do tend to consider things small enough and harmless looking enough as friend shaped, that probably could apply to other creatures too
Orcas are just smart enough to know not to mess with the creators of Tsar Bomba and torpedoes.
they are intelligent, they see us on boats all the time and deploying big things and controlling them. their not stupid enough to make us food.
You should also consider that we as humans tend to kill any individual animal that was found to attack one of us. This creates an evolutionary advantage for all representatives of species that are ignoring/friendly to us.
It can’t override situations of enormous starvation - but sifts out general misbehavior.
That reminds me of lion seals who reportedly brought dead fish to divers and scientists and some even tried to teach human how to hunt like they do with there young.
Orcas might be picky eaters but they dont just kill for food, theyre known to kill for fun. We’d be tempting targets for these games but bafflingly, orcas will avoid taking actions that will harm us.
What stops an orca from capsizing a boat when a seal swims on board? What stops them from biting the funny hose that makes bubbles when encountering a scuba diver? What stops them from dragging us 1000 feet below the surface or throwing us into the air repeatedly until we’re nothing but a soggy tube of gristle and powderized bone?
Theyre also known to rape and murder their own kind. Stories of calfs being killed by males to make the mother “available” and rogue orcas killing other orcas seemingly unprovoked but humans seem to be untouchable.
8:44 Seal - "Hey, human! I've heard that you eat penguins, so I p-p-p-p-picked up a penguin for you!"
Human - "Thanks, but I think there's been some confusion, we only like the biscuits called "Penguins"!
"Despite being physically unimpressive."
Don't underestimate the overpowered dexterity (mostly regarding hands) and almost unrivaled long distance stamina. These are argualby just as historically important in making humans a dominant species as intelligence. Stamina may not be that important anymore, but intelligence would be just as useless without dexterity as dexterity would be without intelligence. A lion wouldn't become more dangerous with a spear even if it had human intelligence, because it still couldn't use it effectively. Humans are not physically unimpressive, we just are not pysically powerful and dangerous in a traditional sense.
We actually are even impressive in an traditional sense, a heavyweight boxer punches with the force of a horses kick which is (with precision) enough to kill nearly every mammal.
Also people tend to use dudes as comparison to animal strength, wich are physically and mentally unshape to kill, and simply never had to hunt or exercise for survival.
I've often wondered if someone of the most intelligent species would have evolved further if it had the ability to hold things. Just take away that ability and we'd be unable to develop any technology
@@tomlxyz yeah, I've thought of that too. I've heard somethin about dolphins being hypotethically smart enough to form societies similar to early human ones in complexity, but they don't have the hands to do it.
Back when humans actually had to fight for their survival, I do imagine we were physically much better off than the average specimen today. Relying upon our technology and intelligence likely caused a decline in other physical faculties.
@@tomlxyz it is not enough. Octopuses have that ability and yet there is no way ever they will form a civilization of any kind simply because they dont live long enough to actually meet and teach their kids, as they die rather fast after mating.
"Regular" dolphins are predators who seem to like human as well. There are a lot of stories of dolphins intentionally saving humans from shark attacks.
Even bigger whales tends to save other animals (including humans) from sharks. Mammals together I guess :-D
One theory is that, rather than being uber intelligent, porpoises sometimes help people in distress because they mistake humans for injured porpoises.
@@lairdmichaelscott Not a chance they think we're their species. They'd have to be crazy dumb to think that. They're not that dumb.
Fun fact - if a dolphin finds you drowning in the ocean it is more likely to r@pe you than save you
@@lairdmichaelscott That's been debunked 😂
We domesticated wolves 30 thousand years ago, not 130 thousand years ago😂
I reckon Orcas can pass down stories and knowledge. Maybe they know that we are effective at killing whales with our ships and harpoons, and there were cases of Orcas helping humans to hunt whales in exchange for part of the kill. Maybe the Orcas today have heard stories of humans that were whaling and know that we can work together but also know how dangerous we can be if we're enemies.
orcas 100% pass down knowledge, and since they have unique languages, probably stories in a really basic form, which convey enough info for them to know what to fuck with and what to run away from
I mean Orca's are not whales they are dolphins
@@jackwhitbread4583 when did I say they are whales? Can you even read?
Lmao
@@jackwhitbread4583 dolphins techinally are smaller whales you baffoon
Its honestly quite amazing to think that for as much as we ponder and study Orcas that they're staring right back trying to figure out the strange being in their waters.
Is it just me or is it weirdly adorable that a seal tried to feed a human a penguin
7:47 they play with their food " this hows they are intelligent" lol
4:26 "Orcas seem very fascinated with humans, and often spend a long time trying to figure us out"
Seems the feeling is mutual, our fellow, highly Intelligent mammals 😅
I can speak on the first 2.
Orcas. I have an acquaintance who was traveling by a small sailing boat and they were attacked by orcas. The orcas attempted to overturn the boat and also went after it with their teeth, ripping the rudder to shreds and immobilizing them, requiring them to declare an emergency to get rescued and towed to port.
Allegedly it was done by a pod of orcas known to attack vessels, it might have something to do with humans going after them first and they're taking revenge.
Wolves. I live in land that has always been and is still inhabited by wolves. It's not so much that they've "learned" humans are dangerous, but that we've exterminated wolves that approach human communities leaving only those genetically predisposed to avoiding us.
As recently as the 1880s a group of wolves killed 22 children here. Since then there have been no fatalities and when wolves get courageous enough to enter human settlements, they're dealt with.
What if a fast power boat of some kind hit and killed a very young orca in their pod and it’s some kind of revenge against boats? Since a sailboat would be the only one they could attack. Like power boats hitting manatees in Florida. 🤔🤷🏼♂️
This is the benefit of genocide of entire races and species, and helping peaceful animals. This is why we do it even in the modern age like hitler where it is no longer relevant. We shape the evolutionary behaviour of other species through visual inspection of genetic similarities for our own survival. If a wolf bites you, call upon your entire community to go to war with the wolves, and genocide all of them, suffering huge casualties yourself. Instead of trying to run away, let any small conflicts erupt into full blown war of genocide, come back with an army and face the fear and exterminate the enemies. In time there are no more wolves and only sheeps. When a herd of cows get attacked by a few lions they just run away. When a herd of buffalos get attacked by a few lions they attack back.
its simply false that wolves don't hunt humans
There are actually large numbers of humans killed by wolves. mostly in developing countries.
I do wonder about those orca boat attacks. Is it revenge, or boredom, or curiosity, or some kind of predatory behavior like they might use on whales? We tend to be biased toward thinking about species as intelligent mostly if they act like us, but other species' motives are often inscrutable to us. Their cultures and languages unintelligible.
its not genocide it s yet called survival of the fittest @@BobBob-lz3yb
If Orcas started hunting people, the orcas that decided to would be wiped out quickly and the survivors would probably learn not to do that
I love TierZoo explanation for Orca not targeting humans from the video 'Are Dolphins OP? The Whales Tier List' the most :-D
3:15. That's Dr Ingrid Visser in NZ. probably one of the most world renown scientists on the planet regarding Orca. She's named practically every Orca in these islands and of course they all know her quite well. Her work regarding these unprecedented creatures has taught the rest of us a LOT about their natural behavior.
she's not an expert at all! she is an activist
@@Johnny69xxx I half way agree. She has had research published about Orcas, but said published research is outside of her "cause". She's against "captivity" but supports sea pens...which is captivity. She's a shining example of what happens when a scientist puts their personal beliefs ahead of science. It's like a mathematician that's also a creationist. That mindset, to include her ignorance, killed a young orca named Bob. She is also a massive hypocrite as she profits off of partnering with a Norwegian snorkeling company that charges people to swim and pet wild Orcas. Which is reckless and dangerous to both humans and Orcas. Any claim from her should be taken with a mountain of salt, because she routinely appears on documentaries (after collecting her appearance fee, yes activists, she does charge one) and makes unfounded claims based on photographs. She's not a total fraud, but a fraud none the less.
@@Johnny69xxx yes she’s an activist and a expert. Just because she’s one doesn’t mean she can’t be the other one too. She has been studying orcas for over 30 years so idk how you come to the conclusion that she isn’t an expert. Everybody should be fighting against the cruelty we do to these incredible animals.
@@frodoalwayshigh5911 if you are an activist you are not objective
@@Johnny69xxx or her decades of study make her a prime candidate to speak in that activist space because you have the evidence base.
Green anacondas are also pretty docile towards humans. Many captive and wild ones have shown to be very curious of humans.
Jaguar never kill human,,stupid content
Our shoulders make us harder to swallow then then their usual prey and they only eat 3 times a year
@@Bandersnatch41 they still consider it which is scary enough
There's actually no verified cases of green anacondas eating a human.
Friends had a rock python who was so cool, I wanted one. When I finally found one for sale, it was curled up in the back of the cage, daring me to stick a hand in. Reflected that even within the same species, different animals have different personalities / temperaments.
A key factor in this is that a predator that ways a ton may not be the smartest thing to play around with, regardless of the animals intention.
Leopard seals have the same behaviors as cats lol
The orca was the only 1 I could think of. Never imagined a leopard seal to be on the list and the wolf was somewhat surprising as well. Awesome vid though mate
I actually always kinda got wolves though it's more an old inscint that makes us fear and caution wolves...since well they are basically one of humanities biggest rivals in the early days.
nvm
Sperm Whales
I already guessed wolves before I clicked on the video, but I never would have guessed leopard seals (mainly because I don't know enough about them)
This just made me remember how big and pants-shittingly terrifying leopard seals are
I imagine its mostly a combination of rarity(most wild animals probably meet a human once or twice at most), intelligence recognition, uncanniness, and the fact that we are relatively little food for most of these creatures. For wolves, something walking on two legs is probably pretty alien and frightening. I would equate it to meeting a strange dog in the wilderness, but it walks on two legs with a steady stride toward you, rather than fleeing. What would you do?
Awww, I would keep it as a pet.
Wolves used to hunt humans. My guess is it was more something learned socially over the years. Any wolves that ended up killing humans would get wiped out in mass in retaliation.
@@jamesfoss1627 Humans used to hunt wolves
@@greenwave819 yeah
charcoal pine resin with a green blossom before switching to Halberd (in case of command grab).
My grandpa smoked 4 packs a day and was an alcoholic, he died at the age of 92, when I think about taste .... I can´t imagine any predator thinking my grandpa would make a good meal.
Most predators dont eat stuff that are just pure bones or simply "bad" for their diet or hard to digest. Some large cats like lions dont eat tiny birds, insects or even tiny mice.
Hmmm we may be 'soft and squidgy' in appearance but from the perspective of wild animals humans are a hell of a lot more dangerous than you'd think, not just because of our intelligence.
Opposable thumbs, a bipedal stance and the ability to sweat are pretty unique advantages for a land animal.
Not saying we're as adapted for fighting/killing as animals with weapons for hands, but we don't need to be - our general purpose nature makes us uniquely unpredictable/dangerous for any animal in a fight (never mind our ability to make weapons).
We can outlast any animal on endurance and we exist almost exclusively in groups - groups which have a tendency to seek out and kill anything that eats our friends.
Even if we were nutritious enough to warrant eating, we are definitely not a soft target.
Don’t forget one of the most important yet overlooked factors - the completely unique ability to throw. A Hunan with a rock is insanely dangerous.
People saying we're soft and squishy as if we're any different from humans 100 000 years ago. We just fast twitch strong muscle fibers for slow twitch endurance ones. We evolved to run and sweat, that was the entirety of the physical requirements to survive. The rest was thanks to tools and intelligence.
@@ddc2957 very good point
@@ddc2957 true, not many other animals have mastered projectiles, and only snakes have projectiles that are more dangerous (natural projectiles). A human with a basic throwing arm could kill a bear with a rock if it hits the right place
I think even our earliest ancestors would have been formidable to any threats or competition. Walking apes with fire, spears, and cunning plans. They've probably been removing competitors and threats for 3 million years and created a lot of instinctive caution against us. Even Lions show a lot of hesitancy and usually have to be conditioned into not being afraid of us e.g. lions in wildlife parks eventually can become aggressive and want to attack, if they've been exposed to humans all their lives. Kind of like how humans can overcome there instinctive fear of snakes, and handle them, with enough exposure and familiarity.
Wolves - strangely enough, Eurasian or European wolves have numerous accounts of attacks on humans, while North American wolves have few accounts of attacks on humans.
As for the leopard seals, they Don't hunt us and do interact with divers, their curiosity can be "overwhelming", or so was told. Made 2 south trips on USCG breakers back in 80s
It is not strange about the North American vs Eurasian wolves, in our developed countries like US and Canada we require proof of such things thus no non rabid attacks, on the other hand Ivan after half a bottle of vodka says he was "attacked" by wolves in Siberia it is written down as "fact" just like it was a century ago in North America when drunken Fred said he was attacked by a wolf in Maine.
North American wolves are probably scared of us and frightened of out guns. However, they do attack in more isolated areas of the continent where they have little to no contact with humans.
That's because we live nowhere near wolves in north America... they live up north. Europeans live very close to wolves.
I live in Slovakia (central-eastern Europe) and I never heard of Wolf attack human...like at all!
Read about Wolves of Ashta
They were a group of indian wolf responsible for killing and eating 17 humans.
The leopard seal that killed a human: "My fellow researchers, I have discovered that humans cannot survive being dragged down this far" *shows depth graph, everyone nods and takes notes* "I am still researching how far they can be dragged and survive but I need the support of the community!"
A different leopard seal: "Nah, we're sticking with the, 'try to teach humans how to eat penguins' research. You just sound like a psychopath and should get help."
Almost like a Farside cartoon.
2:50 It says a great white is an apex predator right after saying the orca hunt them. By definition that would make them not an apex
Orcas are just universal, in most ecosystems the great white is the apex, until a pod of orca crips rolls up
I find it quite adorable how menacing predators like orcas and leopard seals are just as fascinated with us as we are with them. While we are quite pathetic with how easy it is to kill us, these animals usually don’t feel the need to hurt us. Instead, they feel the need to figure out what we’re doing. While they do attack sometimes, I don’t see it as a reason to hate them. They’re animals, they are curious and sometimes that leads them to attack. They don’t have the same impulse control that most of us do.
There is an extremely small chance of an Orca attacking you, I wouldn't feel quite so comfortable around leopard seals.
Additionally large herbivores are generally far scarier than most predatory species. Predators are smart enough to evaluate prey and do some basic risk/reward calculations so when they see a human they try and do the math to see if the meat on our bones is worth the risk of us breaking their bones.
Large herbivores on the other hand mainly defend themselves through shear bulk, and often have small brains since they just need to eacape and either running away or charging a predator are both valid options. (They also regularly fight eachother during mating season) And this is why the deadliest thing in Africa is the Hippo and not any of the predators most people are scared of. Even amoung domestic animals Horses and Cows are very capable of killing you, and while i don't have the statistics i expect they make up most of the serious injuries from domesticated animals, even more than "agressive" dogs. (Dog aggression is 99.9% how they are raised/trained/treated)
Classical pranks are a must be sometimes
Wdym pathetic? If you're an athletic human being I don't think we are that easy to kill even in the wild lol. Our intelligence will give us an edge in every battle that's why we are the most successful species ever on this planet. Don't underestimate your body. Also our stamina is next to unbeatable in the wild just like wolves', we can jog and hunt animals for so long.
It’s not pathetic just hit the gym you could easily fight off a wolf
Is it me but my thought is that if orcas did hunt humans in the wild, then they’re so fast, smart and powerful that no one would ever know, the pod could take out a group of fishermen in a small to medium boat or group of divers within a fraction of a second and leave nobody to tell the tail.
I imagine they would be the single most dangerous advisory in the oceans if they decided to turn on people. With competition heating up for fish, this may become a real problem in the future. Similar to how Elephants in India become more violent around people due to habitat loss and lack of food. While I cannot see Orcas killing people for food, I bet Orcas who specifically rely on fish will become territorial towards people if their food finally becomes short in supply
They definitely won't tell the tail 🥁
OR..... They are so smart they know that if they get cought eating humans.... Humans will be taking revenge!!! 😉...
🤷♂️Who knows..., I personally thought dogs and cats were the smartest animals (because they are well treated)....... But (back than) I didn't knew dogs and cats get eaten in other (barbarian) cultures... So🤷♂️🤔?...
In short the answer (most likely) is that you can't say for sure what others (or other species) think.
For instance : you could think that I think other cultures are barbarian...
And you would be right.... That is if... (and ONLY IF!!!) you consider my thoughts on western "culture"..., and let's say that: I don't hold it, me, him, them, us, umcle, father, grandad nor possible you in high regard if intelligence is a factor wich I have to grade on😉.... Lol.
* tale
Heard a story of some whalers not long ago was documentary on bbc 8 years ago or something they boat got overturned by orcas think they survived but a can’t remember much of the story just orcas sunk the boat was since the tribe
I'm surprised. I just told my husband the other day that wolves have NEVER killed a person In the Americas. I don't remember where I got this misinformation, but I should have looked it up before passing it on.
I also completely forgot about rabies.
Me and a friend once camped out in the forest and were woken up by ants to find ourselves surrounded by a pack of wolves. We just laid there playing dead until they left and fell back asleep. I didn't even know my friend was awake to see them until the morning.
The leopard seal one is shocking to me. I am morbidly terrified of leopard seals for some reason, so knowing that they're actually just sea doggos like the other seals in the world just doesn't mesh well with my fear.
I think my morbid fear comes from the fact that they have a lot of shark-like qualities to them while also having orca-like intelligence.
Wow, I don't think I've ever seen a penguin posting a comment on RUclips before! :)
Don't get me wrong. They're absolutely terrifying and could kill us in a second. But, overall, they've been shown to be mostly curious as said in this video. If you want to be amazed, look up the photos from Nat Geo of the Leopard Seal bringing that guy penguins. It's insane.
One picture of them hunting taken through the ice is what made me terrified of them. Its probably there on utube ,definitely check that out
The fact that really amazes me is that it can reach lenghts up to 4 meters, mostly people don't have idea how big these animals can get.
Yeh I agree leopard seals are the animal that scare me more than any other..they are like real life monsters
We are talking about recorded attacks. I’m sure there are plenty of unrecorded attacks, or people “going missing” at sea or in the woods and never seen again. People tend to forget that nature is not your friend. Hell, even people predate on each other.
Considering they have echolocation they might be able to "hear" cameras and avoid getting caught.
@@shin-ishikiri-no that’s not how that works and they would never be able to recognize a camera or what purpose the camera serves for the humans. Not that it even matters, because most recorded deaths are from SAR teams finding remains or straight up just reporting them dead if they can’t find anything. Cameras rarely find or catch animal attacks, let alone in the ocean of all places.
To be fair, any animal eating humans in the ocean would be, at best, a scavenger. We aren't exactly known for living in the sea for extended periods of time.
I love how most of these are like huh what’s that weird thing ima check it out
All 3 were classed as intelligent so that's why they don't hunt humans because they have met us and they know what we are like.
I always assumed that is because these predators are fairly intelligent and know that killing individual humans may be easy, but in the long run being a threat to humans isn't a viable survival strategy. Killing one unarmed human often results in many more, much better armed humans seeking revenge. I figured that this is the kind of stuff that their instincts tell sufficiently intelligent animals, as, after all, humans have been around for quite some time now as well and it makes only sense that other species have developed a rough understanding of what humans are and what they do. 🤔
Absolutely!!! :)
My exact thoughts as well
Orcas are known to be vindictive, as well as blue whales for example. There are recorded instances of blue whales intentionally trying to capsize whalers in the 1800's for example, after they attacked their calf. Orcas have been showing to do the same, so there is some merit in this.
But that requires the individuals make decisions based on the whole species. An orca killing a human would be long gone before others could do anything about it
Instinct and curiosity might explain why leopard seals don't attack us--I'm a predator, and I don't try to kill everything I see, especially if it's new and interesting and I've never seen anything like it (and I don't know if it's good to eat or not!)--but Orcas know exactly what we are: both dangerous and not to be f**ked with, and fellow "Intelligent beings" (though that's a stretch when it comes to humans) who are more interesting as marvels than as food. We make boats and SCUBA gear ands even swim fins and such. To an intelligent non-manipulator, that must be fascinating. They know what we are, and that we are NOT food.