I Tell Stories
I Tell Stories Podcast covers a wide range of topics discussed by Colt Draine and Owen "The Mic" McMichael. From the scourge on humanity of violent business hippies and Scott Baio to peculiar Serbian Mother's Day traditions,the boys offer their unique perspective. Revolutionary artists,legends of folklore and bizzare following of fast food items are just a few of the subjects touched on. I Tell Stories aims to bring attention to individuals and occerrences that are too interesting to be forgotten. Two long time friends who keep each other laughing give listeners their take on the world. Everyone has a story, these are ours and those of many others.
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I Tell Stories
Apex Predators: Orcas and Humans Hunting Hand and Fin
Ever wondered how orcas communicate or why they carry dead salmon on their heads? Get ready to uncover the secrets of these extraordinary creatures! From their complex social hierarchies to their surprising evolutionary links to land mammals like cows and hippos, this episode offers a captivating look at orcas as apex predators. We'll also reveal a fascinating historical partnership between indigenous whalers and orcas in New South Wales, Australia, where these marine marvels worked hand-in-fin with humans to hunt baleen whales.
Join us as we explore the heartwarming tale of Old Tom, an orca who famously assisted the Davidson family, and dive into the cultural significance of orcas in various parts of the world. We'll even touch on the quirky pod in the Pacific Northwest that turned carrying dead salmon into a trend! With personal anecdotes and humorous tangents, this episode balances education with entertainment, making it perfect for both marine enthusiasts and curious minds alike. Whether you're interested in their intelligence, social behaviors, or just love a good animal story, this episode promises insights and laughs.
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Ahoy, ahoy, ahoy to you, my landlocked friend man orcas. I'm telling you this is one of my favorite animals. I think you knew that, right, owen? Yeah, yeah, I don't mean, I'm not saying like either. I'm not like Nicole with her sharks, or nothing. I don't claim to know a whole lot about them. I just always thought they were pretty freaking cool. So you know, know, I don't know. They're the king of the ocean, right? I?
Speaker 2:think the original shamu had sea world was female. I was unaware of this fact. I thought one of the, the I was gonna say another iteration, but I don't think that's correct. The correct is it's a living creature, but like another shamu, the 15th or whatever, which they finally stopped doing. But yeah, that was my original knowledge of orcas.
Speaker 1:So can I ask you something? Why is Shamu a man's name?
Speaker 2:I didn't know You're like it was a female, but you said it like we should all know I mean because I just looked up what the original and it happened to state that these days I don't think it matters, although we won't get into that. No, no, shamu sounds like a lovely name for a girl or a boy, so I feel the same way.
Speaker 1:My friend Orcas are an apex predator, you know. Just to give you some background, they live in pods, which is pretty cool. It's very like a complex social group, like their crew, their gang. If they're Anglo-Saxons it may be their borad.
Speaker 2:You know where they go and not like the pods you can rent out now, like you know, you've seen those where you can sleep in like a I don't know like pod. They're like stacked on top.
Speaker 1:No, oh, I thought that was like for moving or something, I don't know.
Speaker 2:What do I? It was, I think, but then, yeah, there was actually. Anyway, yeah, orcas they're not. Yes, the orcas are not confined to a pod, but the pod is like a. It'd be like a gaggle of geese right, or a murder of crows.
Speaker 1:It's just what their group is called correct. And uh, there are hierarchies to these pods. Also pretty cool thing about orcas is they're literally everywhere that there's like ocean you know what I'm saying and uh, they, they, um, they like basically there's coastal ones, there's like the ones that are kind of on the shelf of the you know continents or whatnot, and then there's like the deep sea free roman orcas. You know the mysterious, you know the probably or whatnot. And then there's like the deep-sea free-roaming orcas. You know the mysterious, you know the probably Free-range orcas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, free-range, yeah. So here, that's the thing. You know, I don't think no one eats them, do they?
Speaker 1:No, not to my knowledge?
Speaker 1:I hope not, okay, um, no, let's not talk about stuff. Varied diet. They eat a wide range of fish Around here salmon, you know, that's the big ones up in my area Seals, whales and squid, you know, they're a big deal. They also love to hunt sharks, apparently the open ocean ones, they're the, or the mid-shelf ones, or whatnot. They specialize in shark hunting, some of them. So that's kind of interesting. And that includes great whites for all you people out there watching shark week thing in there, the the thing right. So, um, anyway, enough of my talk, shitting, uh, talk, shit, talking against the shark week people. Jeez, I got myself on. That's karma, bro. So orc is evolved from a common ancestor of land mammals such as cows, deer and hippos. That's kind of interesting. They're quite a bit Whoa Well, hippos are very cranky, you know. Oh, they're.
Speaker 2:One ought not to fuck with a gang of hippos. It's something that's been determined.
Speaker 1:Is that a bumper sticker? Hey, it could be. Are they called a gang? I don't know.
Speaker 2:They're not. That was something a friend of the show, lila although she hasn't listened yet, I don't think so scolding her for when she does. But yeah, I was just. We were talking, she brought up hippos and I was like, man, hippos are mean Danger. And then I was like, yeah, you really don't want to run into a gang of hippos. And what we decided on was one ought not fuck with a gang of hippos.
Speaker 1:No, very interesting. We need to find a good hippo story. I wonder if there's any positive ones besides Pablo's hippos. I don't know if you know about that. Anyway, off on a good note.
Speaker 2:I knew that didn't wind up well, but yes, tangent, tangent, tangent.
Speaker 1:This is more than that this is Tangent Police Podcast Land. I know Podcast Land. Yeah, hey, I have Portlandia on in the background, but silent. That's kind of weird.
Speaker 1:Hey so this is like where are we at? Who knows what the fuck we're talking about. I don't know. I mean orcas, obviously, just so happens to be there's uh. For generations, humans in new south wales, australia, had an unusual hunting partner orcas and humans. They work side by side. Owen, did you know that they were hunting? Yeah, um, this is a unique partnership, my friend, you know thinking about in this way because orcas are the apex uh predator of the ocean. They're eating them. Giant squids, my friend, ain't no joke. All right, with their hollow teeth they're very dangerous, but not to us. Apparently, they love us. That's the thing they're hunting with us. You know they were herding in whales.
Speaker 1:This is a thing that goes back, but let's just get this started here. And yet again, I'm falling off here. But humans, the apex predator of land, just isn't that kind of a funny thing, you know. And then, oh, I'm going to want to, bro, I'm going to want to Funny, ha ha, not really. Well, think about that. It's the two apex predators of ocean and land. Now, where's the air at? Okay, where's our air assault? We have hawks and we have eagles that hunt with us. Do eagles hunt with us? Or is it just hawks? I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've seen stuff again. We're in tangent land. But yeah, in Mongolia I saw a video of like golden eagles, oh, massive, swooped out and snapped the spine of a wolf. I mean, yeah, so oh, my goodness, okay.
Speaker 1:Yes again, like, very, get, like, very. Wow, what an amazing species these all are, including ourselves. Let's pat our human humans on the back. You know we always talk shit about, but look at us working with all apex predators.
Speaker 2:It's like to kill more stuff.
Speaker 1:I know, it's pretty amazing. Yeah, it's like a club. Anyway, stop clubbing baby seals. That was like a pretty funny shirt from the 90s. I remember seeing it in Spencer's and it had a baby seal and a discotheque or something. Nonetheless, for oh so.
Speaker 1:I remember, like the 70s, I don't know, I don't know, staying alive, I'm just staying live over here. So we're here in New Not here, but there in New South Wales, australia. Orcas and humans, they're homies, they're in a gang. Apparently they're potted up. This was a unique partnership, you know. Like I was saying, apex Sea, apex Land. They shared a common goal. The orcas would herd large baleen whales toward the shore and then signal to whalers in the coastal town of Eden by slapping their tails on the water, so like, hey guys, check out what we got for you. And then the whalers would come in and harpoon the shit out of these poor whales, but nonetheless and the whalers would take the meat, leaving the orcas their cut of choice the tongues and the lips. That was the big deal for them.
Speaker 2:They would get that first and then it would be left over right. So the blubber was the main goal of the humanoids. Yeah, the blubber Going back way to like I can't pronounce. I don't believe it was like the indigenous people. Oh, hold on.
Speaker 1:Yun, I feel, or no? Wait the Thau. It's hard for me. I don't know the pronunciation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, again, I'm not going to check.
Speaker 1:It's like T-H-U-A-U or A-U, yeah yeah. And then it's the Yuin Nation, I feel unless it's silent or something which is Y-U-I-N Nation in Eastern Australia. Yeah, those guys, they were thought to have hunt with this, like basically this genetic group of orcas, for thousands of years or whatnot, which is pretty amazing, and back then they were doing it by swimming with them. I believe there was a whole study on this, so it's a pretty big deal and they are a sacred animal to these people, which kind of makes sense, sense. I actually believe that, like you know, when they pass on, they become an orca.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I did read that. It's pretty cool that was such a big part of your coexistence, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because a fucking whale. You know you're a villager I don't know how big these guys' villages was, but you know you'd think a couple thousand people one whale could feed. You would think that, right, like for a good chunk. And then they make candles. I don't know, do you need candles in Australia with that beautiful sky? I don't know. I'm giving you compliments, australia, even though you hate us. Apparently, australia hates the United States, guys. I'm a little bummed out about that, you know. Well, I mean you guys. Well, what have they done for us? Mel Gibson, come on, woo, burn, sick, burn Aussies, hey, but this is pretty cool. You know, on this side, Besides the whaling, which they don't do anymore, people Don't hold these people accountable here in Australia, that's not their deal. But yeah, so they would herd in these bailing whales and I believe they would like. Slap their tails was their big signal.
Speaker 1:I also had seen things, uh, in an interview where a daughter of one of these whalers and in this video it was 2014, I don't recall her name, I apologize, but um, she was like in her 80s during this interview and she said she remembered asking her dad, like why don't they help the other whalers? And I didn't even realize this. I didn't see this in any other parts of things that I was reading, but apparently right across the way there's a whole nother group, another village, and they had their own whole little whaling operation. And so her dad answered well, well, I think it's because our boats have green bottoms and theirs are white and they recognize us and they know that they've been working with us for however long you know, it's just they're familiar, that's their friends, so when they see the other boats they don't see them as the same people you know.
Speaker 1:They like recognize these people and there was some talk that even you know possibly their faces and stuff, because some of them were coming close, which I watched some fucking videos when we were doing some research, hardcore hard hitting here At I tell stories at the headquarters and you know I was flipping through and just seeing stuff and it was amazing. But there was like orcas that come up to kayakers and all sorts of shit and just do fun things and communicate and be playful in the wild, full-grown ones too. There's also plenty of stories of orcas saving divers from sharks or just things of that nature. There's no reported fatalities from orcas in the wild, only in captivity. Who would report it?
Speaker 2:Well, no, but I mean, think of yeah, I know right, but think about yeah, no, I'm just being a smart asser, right Like there's not gonna be much left if one of those decides like kayaking, timmy needs to go Kayaking.
Speaker 1:Timmy. Why Timmy Poor?
Speaker 2:Timmy? I don't know, Timmy. I think that's a popular name in New South Wales. It must be Very honky area.
Speaker 1:I feel, except for they're indigenous. I don't know, though I don't want to, just you know, put all Aussies in this.
Speaker 2:No, not many indigenous ones named Timmy. I wouldn't guess All the criminals that the good old UK sent down there, Right yeah.
Speaker 1:Different episode, correct. Well, these killer whales are pretty amazing, so they were helping. Some of the whalers apparently sang songs to encourage the orcas. That's pretty interesting. I think and that's the, I think that's the something you know a little bit about was they had named the whales. I think I didn't have anything on that, though.
Speaker 2:So oh well, again from what I've seen, other than Shamu or long before Shamu, I guess. Not long in the scheme of things, really, but there was an orca named Old Tom what, and I'll tell you a little bit about.
Speaker 1:Old Tom the orca.
Speaker 2:How it's really. I have a song for you, old Tom. September 17th 1930 was a sad day for the Davidson family in New South Wales.
Speaker 1:Oh my.
Speaker 2:God why. The Davidsons were a whaling family and this was the day their friend, an orca by the name of Old Tom, was found dead in Twofold Bay. Oh no, old Tom had assisted three generations of Davidsons by helping to herd baleen whales into Twofold Bay. Family history tells of Old Tom helping each baleen whale migration season from the 1860s up until his death in 1930. Oh, wow, wow, the 610 orca who measured at 22 feet and I forget, I'll have to. I think it's just called the Twofold Bay Orca Museum. I don't know. He's still on display, his skeleton.
Speaker 1:I did't know. He's still on display, his skeleton. I did see that. That's where I seen an actual picture of the green boat was at that same museum. You're on point there, my friend. Oh, okay, Good journalism. I bet you must have just misplaced your little notebooks, those little flippy ones that you used to have back in the day.
Speaker 2:I don't even know what they're called. Yeah, I do have one, but sometimes I forget to write that in my haste for hard-hitting journalism I forget to jot down some facts but remember them. But I did see that he weighed six tons, measured 22 feet and a skull of three feet four inches. And I was kind of wondering like, how do they, how are they sure like old tom was old tom and apparently the dorsal fin was quite recognizable and you know, they're out there. This is what they're doing for a living, like every day during these seasons. But it bent, bent to the right at the top and, uh, yeah, the the Davidsons. Also, family history tells of his distinct sense of humor and the name Old Tom seems to have been derived from Tom Fleury.
Speaker 1:Oh, nice, that's cool. I like that Pretty cool.
Speaker 2:It's pretty heartwarming. And yeah, the pod as you referenced, his pod was referred to as the Killers of Eden. There was a part of Eden Bay or something was part of it. Yeah, there are up to 30 orcas in the pod and 21 of them were actually known by name, again, distinguished by variances in dorsal fins.
Speaker 1:Damn.
Speaker 2:Many of the names were said to be derived from those of deceased aboriginal whalers. Okay, some of the names included Montague, jackson, stranger, humpy, youngster, hookie and Walker. Oh, wow, there are some other great ones, but I figured I would mention those like Hookie and Humpy.
Speaker 1:Okay, Humpy's the best, yeah why. On occasion On occasion Anywho. Oh whales, that's a whale of a tale, my friend. I lost her. How was that? Old Tom, old Tom Poseidon. Rest Ye old Tom, my friend. Rest ye old Tom, my friend. So there is a indigenous whaler named Tom and humpy.
Speaker 2:I derived from. Derived from again Tom from Tomfoolery, which that doesn't sound like an apparigity. I haven't met many apparigities in my travels.
Speaker 1:I haven't either. I don't know which.
Speaker 2:I do remember a dude talking about that he was just going to go live with the abos, as he referred to them in high school when they were first really smoking weed Lurker is all I remember the man as a teenager as, but yeah, he would refer to them as Abos, which I had not heard before or since. No, I mean very you know he was complimentary of said Abos but his life goal was to just I don't know if he knew of the Orcas, but to go live with the abos worship the orcas man.
Speaker 1:That's so crazy. I mean, like I don't know, orcas are some shit man. The only thing that I know is that, from what we know, they don't kill people in the wild. Owen, I did look up that question that you were.
Speaker 2:Just to make it clear Well, I wouldn't blame one if you like. Captured this motherfucker that has the ocean to swim through and it's like oh, here you live in a kiddie pool now. It's like, yeah, I'm gonna eat ya.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hey, ed, remember that question you asked me about orcas.
Speaker 2:Oh Anyway, yes, Whales do fart, including killer whales, alright, so I don't recall that ever being a question of mine, but thank you for inviting me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, alright, fair enough, hey. So, um, there was the rule of tongue. My yeah, All right, Fair enough, hey.
Speaker 2:So there was the rule of tongue, my friend, the law, oh, that's even referred to as the.
Speaker 1:Okay, there you are, thank you. The law of the tongue yes, that's right, there you go. See, yep, you got it.
Speaker 2:That was that it was just understood between the Between the orcas and the human hunters, for all those. I mean they said it was well over a thousand years that the indigenous people had hunted.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 2:Without using any. You know, even once technology was available, they stuck with the same way. But yeah, the orca would only eat the lips, the tongue and the fun stuff, the genitals, and again, the blubber was all the humanoids were after. But yeah, so orcas enjoy eating. I wonder what they think nowadays, where it's like, okay, yeah, let's just leave that alone. Anyway.
Speaker 1:I'm not even gonna.
Speaker 2:They were indiscriminate on whether it started one way or yes, who knows man Trans orcas?
Speaker 1:probably weren't a thing. Alright, I don't think. Trans-atlantic Alright, maybe that's what that means, I don't know.
Speaker 2:We kid, we kid people.
Speaker 1:Oh, oy, vey, nonetheless, shout out to all my Jewish people. So the end of the day here is this is an amazing story. And to think that they're just skinny dipping with orcas thousands of years ago, hunting who knows what, and to imagine, uh, the their, you know what? What do you fucking else was in the water thousands of years ago. I don't know. I mean, obviously it wouldn't have been the prehistoric beasts or anything, because that's not that long ago, but it's a long time ago. But there's probably tons more shit, more predators, and they're just swimming around with these orcas. I guess if you're riding with an orca, everybody's going to get the fuck out of there, huh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I suppose, and I guess they would actually tow some of the whaling ships.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, oh my God. Thanks for bringing that up. There's a lot of amazing stuff like that.
Speaker 2:This wasn't like a just like oh yeah. The drunk guy said like oh, the orcas helped me catch the whales. I swear it's like no, there's like this goes back way, oh wow, hey, I just seen it Before.
Speaker 1:This goes back way before Mr Peabody even. Oh, and that far, way back, way back in that machine. I guess he can go back. However far he goes back, maybe not, I know, nonetheless, owen. Hey, so I just seen in my notes, actually here, after how they sang the song to encourage the whales. It says here my people had a long-lasting friendship with Biowa and this is some of the indigenous people that whaled with them, I feel. Anyway, so this guy says I don't know if I pronounced it right, but he's saying orcas in Eden, especially old Tom. They would swim with old Tom holding onto his dorsal fin. My ancestors were never hurt or injured. That's amazing. Yeah, yeah, you know they like to eat shark livers too, my friend. So that's another thing. You know, there's just different stuff they like. But as far as these baleen, I hope I'm saying that right. Goddamn Cole, what are you doing?
Speaker 2:Get your head in the game that is Balene, but I could be totally wrong. I remember hearing that as a kid, but they told us lots of stuff in the 80s, in the 90s. I was still a kid in the 90s. People are not that old.
Speaker 1:Also a kid in the 80s you know what they call their heads when I was looking into orcas Melons, into orcas Melons, so their teeth yeah, their teeth sit in their description. It says looking in their teeth because they're pretty crazy how they're like they're actually hollow and they flush them out, kind of like brushing them at least twice daily. It says and um, which is pretty crazy, they're amazing. And uh, so nonetheless, um, son of a bitch, where was I going with that?
Speaker 2:I got caught up on the teeth, I did see that they unfortunately, a lot of them died due to starvation because of all the teeth giving out. Yeah, I know, god. Rest old Tom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, hey, oh, here's another thing Judy, judy, old girl.
Speaker 2:Judy Judy. Remember the Judy Judy, old girl Judy. Remember the Judy Judy? A few people haven't listened. Judy was a was an English pointer. Yeah, was the only dog ever recognized as a prisoner of war in World War 2. Yeah, covered her, but they referred to her as old girl, old girl yeah, got rest old girl.
Speaker 1:Indeed, yeah, nonetheless old girl, old girl. Yeah, got rest Old girl.
Speaker 2:Yeah, nonetheless, is the old girl an old Palmer Is like a SeaWorld in the sky, or Well, I hope not.
Speaker 1:I hope they're not at SeaWorld. That's like hell for a fucking.
Speaker 2:Maybe SeaWorld's a happy place. I remember it as a happy place. Yeah, their fins all floppy, it's like. Oh yeah, they keep these giant creatures in a little pool for our amusement.
Speaker 1:Right, the whole time they're thinking they know things. All right, guys, hey, I read a thing, or actually I overheard because I was looking into podcasts. Well, just on orcas, I just like to dig, man, I'm digging, so like, but apparently they're, you know, they're trendy, right, they're in the 70s. There was a pod that still exists, but it's up here in the Pacific Northwest by Seattle, in the San Juan Islands or whatnot. But they, like they observed them for about two years where it was a trend of theirs to like just put salmon, dead salmon on their head and swim around with them on there, and they couldn't explain anything else otherwise, like it just became trendy for them to do so, you know, because that's like what the scientists determined. Is that fucking weird or not? I think it is. It's rather odd, I odd. I was kind of having a hard time understanding, but yeah, I'm surprised it didn't catch on with like the you said.
Speaker 2:It was out there like the trendy hipsters weren't swimming around with salmon on their heads Like, oh, that's the thing, this is what the orcas do and we're in tune with nature. I don't know man.
Speaker 1:I don't know, this is the 70s I was just talking about. I don't know, man, I don't know. This is the 70s I was just talking about. I don't think hipsters were a thing. Yeah, I guess they were, anyway, nonetheless, nonetheless, I think this is a fucking pretty cool story, the fact that we were hunting with orcas. There's a lot of good stories about orcas. They're friendly to us humanoids, okay, as peoples. They don't want to harm us. One day they maybe, maybe they got spaceships. I don't know who the fuck knows, conspiracy people, what you know about orcas? People talk about squids and stuff and octopus and how smart they are. I feel Orc is maybe on that level. Nonetheless, it was good to hear about your SeaWorld stories, owen. It's always nice to. I'm glad your pants stayed on the.
Speaker 2:Anchorman was not yet in banner that I was like eight, I had not been drinking or lit a fire in anyone's kitchen and, yes, I did not take my pants off at SeaWorld.
Speaker 1:Okay, thank God, god, thank God, I don't even know what to say. That makes me so happy that you did not, everybody out there have a great night day, whatnot?
Speaker 2:Hey, oh yeah, much love everybody yeah.
