Penguin escapes killer whales by jumping onto a boat.
Antarctic penguins (and most other Antarctic animals for that matter) are very interesting because they lack a natural fear of humans since, of course, humans are not a natural occurrence on the continent. It is one of the few places on earth where it is completely normal for fully wild animals to be comfortable around you. In fact, most react as though humans are just especially large penguins as those are the only flightless biped native to the area.
As far as this gentoo penguin is concerned, it was saved by a float of large yellow penguins also hiding from orcas.
Please note that the orca is perfectly capable of killing everyone in this video and was intelligent enough to choose not to.
There are no recorded orca attacks for a reason, not even among the tribes that specialize in hunting large mammals. I firmly believe they saw us humans whaling and fishing, and recognized that humans are dangerous. They know we’re fellow killers.
Besides, they have a sort of language and pass down information from one matriarch to the next. Even if there were orcas that have never seen humans, which I doubt, they would still know better than to attack us.
It actually probably has more to do with the history whalers and hunters share with orcas, orcas were given the name ‘killer whale’ by ancient sailors’ observing groups of orcas hunting and preying on larger whale species. They called orcas asesina ballenas, or ‘whale killer’ – a term that was eventually flipped around to the easier ‘killer whale’. Their Latin name, Orcinus orca, also reflects this observation of orcas feeding on large whales. Orcinus translates to ‘of the kingdom of the dead,’ and orca refers to a kind of whale, ancient whalers would often feed orcas some of their kill.
The Yuin people for example seemingly entered into a tacit sort of unspoken agreement with orcas, which was called by later whalers the Law of the Tongue.
The orcas would herd in and trap the baleen whales in Twofold Bay and then the hunters would harpoon the whales. In return for their help, the hunters would share certain parts of the bounty with the orcas.
Orcas are etremely intelligent, creative and social animals, often living in large, matriarchal, multi-generational pods. Most importantly, they teach their offspring their hunting methods, passing the knowledge on from one generation to the next.
Humans and orcas share a history as closely intertwined as humans and dolphins, presumably even dolphins (and yes I know orcas are dolphins) didn’t like us at some point but now we have a somewhat mutual respect for one another in the wild, so tell me, would you, a large cetacean, rather attack a boat full of gangly pink whale killers you’re usually cool with to get a small snack or would you rather just go hunt another penguin?
