Orcas Teaching Each Other To Attack Boats, They Are At War

Though there’s no question that we have better technology to monitor and document the behavior of orcas, experts have reason to believe that this particular set of learned behaviors haven’t been learned recently, but are rather long-standing. In other words, orcas that exhibit certain unique learned behaviors, like ramming boats for fun, are localized within a particular region.

But attacking other apex predators and feasting on their entrails has been witnessed by marine biologists all over the world, which suggests that these behaviors were learned over thousands of years of evolution, and we’re just now witnessing it because we’re better at observing these kinds of incidents.

Orcas are fascinating, intelligent, and violent creatures who are absolutely capable of adaptive reasoning and working new skill sets into their arsenal of attacks. While the increase in boat attacks is clearly a recently learned skill set, it goes without question that these big-brained apex predators can get belligerent when a perceived threat approaches. But on the same token, if they weren’t taught to attack boats by another orca in their pod, they’d probably pay no mind to an approaching vessel if they didn’t have reason to believe that their lives were in danger.