Im gonna go on a mini rant here about the presentation of animal behavior and attaching morality to predator/prey scenarios here so feel free to ignore, I know I’m overreacting.

I keep seeing posts about humpback whales interrupting orca hunts and apparently saving the prey animals. And while thats FUCKING INTERESTING behavior the language theyre using is buggin the shit out of me.

Calling them “heros” and doing “good”.

Can we not attach that kind of morality to this, because that makes orcas “villains” and “bad” in the situation. Humpbacks ARE predators too. They aren’t herbivores. But no one thinks their prey is cute so. And theres already been enough media demonizing natural orca behavior. They gotta eat, man. When people get attacked by captive orcas, some people brush off the behavior, not fathoming how deeply disturbing, telling, and rare it is bc “Theyre killer whales, what did you expect!” and I’ve met so many people who have this deeply violent mental image of them. I’ve told people I love orcas and gotten the response “Orcas are jerks.” So much media only focuses on the more inventive hunting techniques used by a few individuals, and instead of presenting it as fascinating evidence of how amazingly smart they are, its presented as terrifying and monstrous.

The problem here is its hard to get people to give a shit about animals they think are monsters.

Can we please for the love of fuck stop applying human morality to natural animal behavior.