Your Life as an Orca

In this video we discover what your life would’ve been like if you were born as an Orca. (Also known as the Killer Whale)

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Outro Music: Good time 01 - Xuxiao

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[ScanovatheCarnotaurus]

For anyone that's a bit confused on the premise of the video, especially in the latter half, orcas have what are called "ecotypes". Essentially, orcas have many different lifestyles and live in many different places, with their own cultures and traditions. Orcas don't just eat and hunt everything like what would be implied as them being top predators of the sea. Orcas are taught by their families what food is, and this can mean particular things for particular groups. Some only eat fish, some only eat marine mammals, some only eat sharks. Some are more general. It all depends.

The main character orca's ecotype are the "Resident" Orcas of the North Pacific. It's particularly a reference to those that live off the coast of British Columbia, who are the most studied orcas in the world. The ecotype he meets near the end with the elephant seals are North Pacific's "Transient" (or Bigg's) Orcas, which hunt marine mammals. The two groups largely avoid each other due to cultural, language, and evolutionary difference.

The ones he meets off of Norway are two different groups of "Type 1" Atlantic Orcas, which themselves are divided into 7 different groups. He references the ones that eat marine mammals and the ones that eat herring. Yes they are different groups that eat different things.

The pair of orcas he meets down in South Africa are a pair of individuals known as "Port" and "Starboard", which are a pair of orcas that have become famous for hunting Great Whites. While specific orca ecotypes do eat sharks and rays, hunting great whites is pretty rare and only really seen as a particular quirk with certain orcas that have learned how to do it, hence why these two are so famous. They also have floppy dorsal fins. Despite the overarching myth of floppy fins being a sign of bad health, we still don't really know why it happens, or why those two wild orcas have it.

Antarctica has its own subset of orcas, with at least 5 different ecotypes identified (A, B1, B2, C, and D). Type A orcas hunt minke whales, with both types of B Orcas hunting seals and penguins as seen in the video. By contrast, Type Cs only eat antarctic cod. Type D is extremely mysterious, only sighted a handful of times throughout history, and don't really look like any other orca group with their "squinting" eyespots and very bulbous heads.

There is also a (currently little understood) ecotype of orcas off the coast of Argentina that hunt sea lions by jumping out onto the beach after them. This is a learned behavior that takes skill, because it is very dangerous. They can't just do it innately because, as you can imagine, it could easily get them killed.

There is debate on whether of these orca ecotypes are all the same species or not. There's a lot of similarities AND differences in terms of physical appearance, with a lot of groups seemingly being very distinct evolutionarily (some ecotypes are separated by a few MILLION years, which is pretty long on a species-level). I personally find it likely that orcas are "overlumped" as it were. There's likely multiple subspecies or even species of orca entirely. There's been heavy research and debate about it in recent years. However, the truth is that we have a lot to learn about orcas before we can figure all that out. Orcas are actually incredibly mysterious animals despite their popularity, and outside of particular groups like our orca's Resident ecotype, they are usually understudied. Orcas themselves are almost like their own group of people under the ocean, with their own history and culture that we're only recently just been starting to unravel. We'll see what the future holds for them and what more we'll learn.

[ashrafMoFathy]

13:42 "Nobody likes a copycat"
I see what you did there 😂

[OnePunchBaldy]

There are so many youtubers trying to copy your flow but it doesn't feel the same. You should try and put yourself out there more, you're really entertaining. (Edit: A lot of people are saying, “isn’t this a copy of sam O’nella?” No, inspiration and copying are different - This mans entire style of story telling, humor, and representation of facts are different. Unlike the copycats who literally copy this mans flow 1 for 1. Word for word, bar for bar.

[miguelfreitas]

"Even as an adult with two kids you still don't feel like you've got it together"

Damn, who knew orcas were so relatable... :'D

[MoondustManwise]

NGL, you're definitely the best "your life as insert animal" channel, because you're creative with the visuals. Way too many just recycle the same pngs over and over.

[isaacthemonke]

Nice way of showing that Orcas are so intelligent they can have completely different cultures literally oceans apart from another.

[im_bored]

That Elephant seal has had the worst life ever. First they lost their son in the great white shark video, now they literally got jumped and left die That’s actually wild.

[Nightingale_Crown]

9:38 I thought they were going to take her like to SeaWorld or something.

[fulcrumsee]

Orca's are just like people, they have their own cultures, languages and dialects within that language (well orcas version of speech). Such majestic creatures.

[digitalsale]

It’s surprising to learn that orcas’ food choices differ by region. I always assumed their diet was the same across the board!

[AustinThinker]

I’m so annoyed at the insane amount of people on plagiarizing your work. Thank you for not giving up!

[grandpac]

Crazy to think that the Orca was okay with terrorizing, torturing, and leaving the Elephant seal to die, but draws the line at actually eating them for survival 😂😂

[jahmokaeperson]

Finally the real one posts. Was getting sick of so many clones. Not to bash anyone or anything but my god most of those channels didn't even bother throwing in something to make them stand out.

[michaelhensel]

I like how you set up a whole storyline in order to show how diverse orcas are

[Jakc_Tk]

Tracking them and not knowing where to put them back is insane

[gabrielNzeyimana-cv]

i love that you are still going even if there are sloppy copy pasting people copying your work

[Awesome_mangorino]

0:28 "8 and a half feet and 140 kilos" man just choose 1 system please 😭

[ICXR]

I had no idea Orca behaviour was *SO* diverse and unique!
They literally have CULTURES!

[eleutheromania_is_fyhr_alt]

I love the idea of a residential orca getting lost and encountering the world like this. Almost feels like a childrens book. Im half tempted to try to draw it out

[cayenneta]

this is such a cool way to show how different orcas from around the world are and how simmilar they are to humans with their different diets, languages, and cultures