Simon Barnes

The cultural life of orcas

issue 18 February 2023

Male killer whales are all mummy’s boys. That’s not a revelation; their curious and intense social lives have been studied for decades, but the extent to which a male orca depends on his mother has been revealed by new research, which shows that mothers routinely sacrifice their food and their energies for their enormous male offspring, compromising their own health and their ability to produce more young.

Orcas or killer whales – the former name is used more often these days – are not whales but big dolphins, up to eight metres long. They’re fierce enough under any name, but curiously selective in their ferocity. And that’s all about culture.

Not ours: theirs. The cultural life of orcas is a subject of scientific debate, and its implications are extensive. The idea that only humans have culture – that culture defines the separation of humanity from everything else that lives – is long exploded and orcas have helped greatly with the exploding.

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