If 2020 was the year of nature’s healing, 2023 is considered the year of its revenge: killer whales sank yachts, javelins destroyed golf courses, and a feisty sea otter stole surfboards. As the popular narrative goes, the animals have had enough and they (finally!) rebel against human dominance.
Of course, this isn’t true. These creatures are doing normal animal behavior but happen to be hostile to humans. Javelinas, pig-like creatures native to the southwestern United States, destroyed a golf course in Sedona, Arizona, as they hunted for earthworms. Orcas in the Strait of Gibraltar are likely tinkering with their rudders for fun. Otter 841, an adult female otter that repeatedly harassed kayakers and surfers in Santa Cruz, California, may associate people with food.
When humans view these behaviors as intentional, we are also engaging in a behavior that is typical of our species telling stories that, while not literally accurate, capture some larger truth. For example, as climate change makes life on Earth increasingly difficult and unpredictable, nature appears to be fighting back.
As a result, the long-held belief that humans are above nature and that our needs trump all other animals appears to be shifting, said Jeffrey Whitehall, a political science professor at Acadia University in Canada.
Whitehall said we generally reserve agency for humans. But animals clearly have different interests than we do, and when we realize this, when we start to believe that other animals matter, it opens up a lot of interesting conversations.
One of the most sensitive issues is the gap between rich and poor. Monika Wieland Shields, director of the Institute of Killer Whale Behavior in Friday Harbor, Washington, said many people believe wealthy elites are responsible for many of the environmental problems we face. Imagining an orca uprising can use humor to express how we feel. It keeps us from feeling completely hopeless.
The problem with this kind of humor, however, is that it relieves our anxieties without making us reflect on our own contributions to the problems, Whitehall said. Whether you’re talking about wildlife or our fellow humans, the oppressed don’t need us cheering from the sidelines. They need us to be part of things like reducing our carbon footprint, using fewer resources, and enacting wildlife protection laws.
Whitehall said animals behave strangely and we need to behave strangely too, which requires changes in the way we live our lives, even against our immediate interests. Golfing in the desert is one thing I would give up.
Resistance behavior
Javilinas is an unlikely mascot for any kind of conservation effort. Named for their spear-like tusks, these fetid creatures weigh an average of 50 pounds and travel in fearsome packs. People, especially in Texas, refer to them as giant rats, said Adam Johnson, an anthropologist at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte who studies human-animal conflict.
Javilinas are not aggressive, Johnson said, but their poor eyesight can cause them trouble. Sometimes, when they are trying to escape from humans, they will accidentally run towards us.
He said there’s an idea that javelins are bloodthirsty villains who want to hurt you.
Against this backdrop, when golf course manager Emily Casey woke up one morning to find that Javelin had caused tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage to the pristine greenway at Seven Canyons Golf Club in Sedona, Arizona, she might Hopefully her fellow humans will sympathize with her. She wrote on her website that what should have been one of the most beautiful golf courses in the country was destroyed by swarms of javelins. Social Media Website,X.
Instead, she got roasted. I’m sorry you’re placing the golf course in the javelina’s natural habitat. The desert looks scary green, where does the water come from?wrote an early interviewee. Other like-minded commentators quickly added: It’s now a 2,000-hole golf course. Rewilding is unstoppable, user X wrote Jonathan Franklin. Soon after, the hashtag #teamjavelina began trending on social media in support of animals just trying to make a living. (Watch a video of Javelin mourning, a similar human emotion.)
Johnson agrees with #teamjavelinas’ basic sentiment.
for me it yes It was an act of political resistance, he said. It is through their existence that they resist the imposition of this artificial development.
#RobinHood Team
Shields said the behavior of shipwrecked orcas is easier to explain, and some people do believe there is an ocean-wide orca uprising.
People often ask, is it safe to go whale watching here? Shields said.
When news of the orca sinking hit social media, many people were quick to interpret it as revenge and side with the whales. Orca-themed memes, such as “Eat the Rich” and “Orcanize,” quickly spread from the Internet to the physical world in the form of T-shirts and bumper stickers.
Some even imagine different species joining forces. Orcas have taken over the sea. Javilinas occupied the land. Who will take over the sky? wrote one user on gaming forum ResetEra.
The originators of the #teamorca meme (perhaps intentionally) misinterpreted whale behavior in order to channel and proliferate two modern anxieties: environmental destruction and wealth. “There’s a Robin Hood aspect to the fact that they’re destroying rich people’s yachts, and I think that’s very attractive to people,” Shields said.
Shields said it was an interesting story, but the whale did not appear to be attacking the vessel. Their behavior involved exploring and experimenting with the rudder mechanism, suggesting they were just having fun.
Shields said they had now sunk four ships, and it was more likely that the ships were sunk later, due to damage caused by missing rudders. If the whales were aiming to sink a yacht, they would ram the vessel and cause even more damage.
Although rudder-rushing behavior is relatively new, biologists have observed many other gaming fads in these intelligent, social creatures. For example, the fish hat craze started in 1987, when orcas in Puget Sound began swimming around with dead salmon on their heads. This year, Shields observed local orcas dragging crab traps by chains, just for fun. (Learn why orcas kill porpoises instead of eating them.)
Shields said the only unusual thing about the Gibraltar whale’s behavior is how long the fad lasted. Most orca trends peter out in less than a year, but rudder-banging behavior has been strong since 2020, and it’s probably our fault.
Some boaters near the Gibraltar orcas have been playing music and throwing objects at them. This may get the opposite reaction one hopes for. It makes the whales more interesting, she said. The whale wonders, what are people going to do today? Let’s see what type of reaction they will have.
A complete rethink?
Johnson said human-animal conflicts are likely to intensify in the coming years as climate change occurs and resources become increasingly scarce. Whether people are ready to truly side with animals remains to be seen, but some signs point to yes.
For example, after Freya, the stocky female walrus who rose to fame after sunbathing in Norway in 2022 and ultimately sinking several ships, was euthanized, some called the decision hasty and shameful.
The pessimist in me sees #teamorca and #teamjavelina trending and it looks like social media theater, he said.
But maybe it’s true. Perhaps we are beginning to realize that we need to fundamentally rethink our relationship to the world and how we situate ourselves within it.
#member #Team #Orca #nature #fight
Image Source : www.nationalgeographic.com