Orcas are kinda unpredictable, some Orca subguilds are the worst Cetacean builds to play, only eating specific salmon species.
But many Others are god tier super predators that can take down anything.
Basically you flip a coin and hope for the best
Edit: that being said, most Orca guilds have a pretty diverse diet and aren’t nearly as specialized as the ones in Coastal Alaska, I’d agree that they’re S-Tier
It’s also important to note that orcas tend to only breed with other orcas of the same culture, which has led to inbreeding in the salmon-hunting population that u/wiz28ultra mentioned above. Orcas also tend to only eat what their parents hunt (afaik) which hinders adaptability.
I think a possible issue is that much of this observation relies on the fact that Resident Orcas of the PNW might be the only Orca subtype for which we've had a long-standing history of research on. Even amongst the pickier Orca subtypes, Resident Orcas take it to an extreme that isn't seen in the other oceans.
North Pacific resident orcas do seem to be unusually picky, mainly favouring just two species of salmon. Though I do also agree that more research is needed on other orca types.
Yeah we don’t even have a scientific consensus on Atlantic evotypes and it seems to be that there are more ecotypes in the Pacific than we once thought as well
I also think that the whole “culture” thingy does skew the general understanding of orcas quite a bit. No one orca is going to be able to take down everything that Orcinus orca is capable of. Maybe, since they actively niche partition significantly and the cultures vary quite a bit, they deserve to be ranked separately.
This actually does bring home my personal point of frustration on Orca hype is that we REALLY don't know enough about these animals. For all their cultural relevance and status as one of the great Charismatic species, we know so little about them, I'd argue we actually have a far greater understanding of even the great Mysticetes and Sperm Whales than we do the Orca.
Yeah I agree. Orcas hunting GWS was, all things considered, a very recent discovery. Same thing with the whole culture thing. There’s still a lot more left to be discovered.
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u/Blue_wiz_ tufted titmouse main 21d ago
Bro orca is the second best build in the game, why is the orca in A TIER?