The Jungle is all about Survival. Different animals use different skills. Some animals are more equipped than the rest, but the less equipped ones have also refused to get subdued. It’s simply all about Survival. One survival skill I’ve come to admire is Intelligence and I’m going to discuss this in three animals.
Killer Whale (Orca)
I’ve always admired Orcas . It could be because of its beautiful colouring – Black, White and a little shade of grey. Or maybe because it doesn’t attack humans.
Orcas are top of their food chain, hunting even the ruthless Great White Shark (well, I find that interesting and exciting). They are highly social Animals, having a pod of about 40 Orcas. They hunt and communicate by echolocation. This is where it gets interesting!
They are able to do this by sending out sounds that travel through the water, hit a potential prey and go back to them with the necessary information they need – Location, type and size of prey. With this, they could easily trace their targets. Killer Whales are calculative, as well as playful. They also use echolocation in reaching out to their fellow Orcas. To catch seals or penguins on land, they calculate the distance between them and their prey, then throw themselves on land to capture their prey. This is done by some experienced Orcas. I once watched a young orca get stuck on the beach while chasing a Penguin and was fast losing its strength because it couldn’t figure out the escape route. It called out to its mum using echolocation. Mum came to its rescue and showed it how to get itself freed. It followed mum’s movements and was free. I was impressed.
Killer Whales are also big – They are said to be the size of a school bus. They can reach up to 33feet long and can weigh up to 6 tons. Now, that’s massive!
One would think that they would be slow with their massive size. But No, these guys are almost as fast as our Bolt. They reach speed of about 29km/hr.
Everything about Orcas is thrilling – Their hunting techniques, the relationship they share and their way of life.
Photo credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whale
Source: https://mildwindblog.wordpress.com/2018/01/05/the-orca/
