Connect To Sea – is one of the species in animal world which has instilled fear in the hearts of men for centuries. Orca dolphins are at the top of the ocean’s food chain and have a fearsome reputation.
They have many terrible nicknames, such as tiger fish and killer whale. They not only kill whales, but also sharks and all species in the ocean. But where does this title actually come from?
To find that answer, we have to look all the way back to when orca dolphins first began to be identified by humans. For your information, the scientific mother of the orca dolphin is Orcinus orca. The name comes from the myth of Orcus, the Roman god of death and the underworld who was known as a punisher.
In North America, the native Haida people call them skana, which are murderous demons. The Aleuts called it plainsatik, which means “the feared one.”
However, it cannot be denied that orca dolphins are indeed an adorable species in the animal world. They have distinctive and cute black and white markings. There are many depictions of orcas being friendly to humans, such as in the films “Free Willy” and SeaWorld’s Shamu.
However, for those of us who have seen the 1970s film ” Orca the Killer Whale ” starring Richard Harris and Bo Derek, we can probably understand why they got that nickname.
Similar to what “Jaws” did for sharks, this thriller positions orcas as the cruel, vengeful and bloodthirsty creatures of the animal kingdom.
The orca furiously hunts down the humans responsible for the death of its mate, the enraged orca devouring each person, one by one.
According to the film, apart from humans, orcas are the only animals that kill for revenge. Orcas are known as animals that have high intelligence in the animal world, the most intelligent of all species in the ocean.
In the ocean, humans are clearly no match for orca dolphins, as these killer whales grow up to 32 feet (9.75 meters) long and weigh 12,000 lbs (5,443 kilograms).
This size is approximately 600 times the size of an adult bird. Of course, isolated attacks by captive killer whales on their trainers make even the most docile ones seem a little more dangerous.
King of Norway
Somewhere between 1250 and 1260, the Norwegian King Håkon Håkonsson came into possession of a book. The book was created with instructions to his sons about his kingdom and how to rule it.
The book is a kind of introduction from parents about the ins and outs of being a king. The book was entitled ” The King’s Mirror ” (Kongespeilet).
The book contains in-depth information about the farthest reaches of his kingdom, including Iceland and Greenland — useful knowledge for Håkon’s descendants to establish their sovereignty over such a vast territory.
The animals of the sea receive special attention, and varied and detailed knowledge of the many species of whales is included in the book.
For sailors like Norwegian, this was important information. In the book, killer whales or orca dolphins are described as animals with a voracious appetite.
However, the author of “The King’s Mirror” considered all whales, including killer whales, to be fish and they continued to be classified as fish for some time.
When the famous taxonomist and natural historian Linnaeus decided to name all the world’s living organisms, he also listed the killer whale along with other fish – at least in his initial treatise from 1746.
This taxonomist was the first to give a scientific name to killer whales. He called them Orcinus orca, retaining the orca name that had existed since at least the time of Pliny and adding Orcinus, Latin for “belonging to the underworld”.
Pliny was a diligent and hardworking officer of the Roman Empire, who in his spare time attempted to collect and present all the knowledge in the world in his great work “Naturalis Historia” (Natural History).
Pliny was one of the ancient naturalists who described this apex predator in the ocean. Pliny did not explain in detail what an orca looked like, he himself had never seen one and relied on descriptions from sailors.
With such a terrifying reputation, orca dolphins do have a lot of calls from local people who come into contact with them. And one of the most popular is killer whale.
The nickname was given because orca dolphins are known by sailors as hunters and predators of the larger whales in the animal world. At one point the nickname of the term then shifted to killer whale.
Then when Linnaeus published the tenth edition of his ” Systema Naturae “, he made a quick decision and moved all whales and dolphins to be grouped with other mammals and not with fish in the animal kingdom, including killer whales.
He placed killer whales in the dolphin family (Delphinus) along with pilot whales, bottlenose dolphins, and common dolphins.
Modern taxonomists, who have studied the anatomy and genetics of this diverse family, agree with Linnaeus on this point. Killer whales are basically very large dolphins.
