[13]. (l. c., p. 92.)
The killer’s habit of forcing open a whale’s mouth and eating the tongue from the living animal, is an extraordinary method of attack which has long been recorded by the whalemen who hunted the Arctic bowhead. I must confess, however, that I had always been skeptical as to the accuracy of this report until my own experiences with the gray whales in Korea, where its truth was clearly demonstrated.
Another story which is undoubtedly purely mythical, although it has astonishingly wide credence, is that of “the swordfish and the thresher.” It is said that a swordfish with a killer will attack a large whale, prodding the animal from below with its “sword” and preventing it from diving, while the killer tears out the tongue.
An anterior view of a killer. The heavy teeth and the white spot just behind the eye are well shown.
I have personally interviewed a number of men who were reported to have witnessed such a combat, but have never yet found one who had seen a swordfish, or had any evidence of one being there, although the killer could easily be seen. They usually defend their story by saying that a swordfish must have been below, otherwise the whale would have sounded. Undoubtedly what prevents the whale from diving is the fact that it becomes paralyzed with fright and so utterly confused that it is unable to escape.
An orca probably could not kill a large whale alone, but single individuals undoubtedly cause all the fin whales great annoyance by biting off the tips of their flukes and flippers; at least two-thirds of the whales brought to the stations had the flukes or flippers injured. I have a photograph of a young finback whale with the flipper torn and mangled and plainly showing a killer’s teeth marks.
The sperm whale is probably the only marine animal which is more than a match for a herd of killers. The enormous lower jaw of a sperm whale presents an array of teeth even more formidable than those of the orca, and I greatly doubt if the killer could succeed in terrifying this whale; it is significant that the flukes and flippers of sperms are practically always free from injuries.
Like other members of the dolphin family, the killer has twelve teeth in both jaws and they may be readily distinguished from those of the sperm whale by their smaller size and flatter basal portion.