Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by HorsePunchKid (talk | contribs) at 06:09, 4 January 2005 (→Capitalization?). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article forms part of Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Cetaceans

Template:Featured article is only for Misplaced Pages:Featured articles.

Older issues:

Talk:Orca/General archive 1

Talk:Orca/Should the page be at Orca or Killer Whale (resolution: Orca)

Talk:Orca/Is it a dolphin, a whale, both?! (resolution: dolphin)

Naming

I notice that the following sentence has been recently removed as part of an edit

However political correctness has also played a role in the name change.

This is a important point. Why was it removed?

Pcb21| Pete 00:25, 17 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Ah, it looks like Neutrality made the edit in a "drive-by" spree of copyediting of lots of articles. I have done a partial rv. Pcb21| Pete 16:38, 17 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Ah, it appears that Neutrality has made the same change again, without feeling it necessary to explain why here. I'll re-do the rv. Pcb21| Pete 13:34, 21 Sep 2004 (UTC)

And the same change for a third time, without comment in the summary, or here. I have reverted using the rollback button. As a side effect the change from "m" to "metres" also got reverted. I will endeavour to find out what correct policy on using this abbreviation is. Pcb21| Pete 07:06, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I like the abbreviation—that way, there is no American English/Commonwealth English bias. ] 13:31, Oct 11, 2004 (UTC)

Ok, that's fine by me.

You asked on my talk page why I do not like the edits you describe as "npoving". The reason is that they are exactly the opposite! That the common name for the species has more or less changed to Orca is to do with internationalization of research, but more importantly it is because there is an element of rebranding involved. No-one in the field disagrees with this. I don't really understand why you want to create a distorted history of why the name has changed, but perhaps you don't know that much about the situation, and are simply changing the sentence because it reads like a strong statement to you? If this is the case, then I am happy to reassure you that the sentence is quite acceptable in an NPOV article. Pcb21| Pete 13:53, 11 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Ah, OK. I think the article as it stands now is good. Thanks. ] 15:37, Oct 11, 2004 (UTC)

"Killer"

I came to the article via the discussion page. I have made some copyedits. On reading the article I noticed two sections:

No attack on a human by an Orca in the wild has ever been recorded. There have been isolated reports of captive Orca attacking their handlers at marine theme parks.

However there are many who prefer the original name on account of the fact that it is a good description of a species that does indeed kill many animals (just not humans ).

Later in the article it would appear that orcas have resulted in the documented death of one person, many fewer than can be attributed to domestic dogs. I think the second sentence could happily do with the removal of the part in brackets. I leave that up to those looking after this page.

Will do. Pcb21| Pete 20:02, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Other things I noticed:

From then they periods of polyestrous cycling with non-cycling periods of between three and sixteen months.

Is it worth mentioning single births? Is there an incidence of multiple offspring births? --CloudSurfer 03:09, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Not that my references tell me. Pcb21| Pete 20:02, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Pictures

I have brightened two of the pictures on the page. Hope you don't mind. Let me know if you think they are problematic as they now are. --CloudSurfer 19:40, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Looks good thanks. Pcb21| Pete 20:02, 12 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Polossatik?

This is probably a mistake. Polossatik is a Russian name for any of the rorqual whales. It means, unsurprisingly, "striped one". I guess somebody mistook 'rorqual' for 'Orca'. As for the alleged meaning in Aleut, this is probably condensed out of thin air. --i@k5 15:20, Oct 15, 2004 (UTC)

You may well be right that it is a mistake, however if it is, it is not a mistake of this article's author (me). The information is directly from

Orca: The Whale Called Killer, Erich Hoyt, Camden House Publishing, ISBN 0920656250. Should we junk it to be on the safe side? Pcb21| Pete 12:13, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I think so. --i@k5 15:20, Oct 15, 2004 (UTC)

Incidentally a Google search gives just four hits for "polossatik". All four talk about Orca. One can be ignored because it is a wikipedia clone. Another lists Hoyt's book as a reference. The other two... I don't know... maybe they could've used Hoyt too. The three non-wiki-clones all have copyright dates prior to the writing of this article, and so probably did not crib from this article. Pcb21| Pete 12:19, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Try 'polosatik' (single s). Most of the English hits are about Balaenopterae --i@k5 15:20, Oct 15, 2004 (UTC)

For what it's worth, the correct Russian spelling is полосатик. The term is (in a technical context, at least) only used () to refer to members of Balaenopteridae , as far as I can tell. These are baleen whales, which are not particularly closely related to the dolphins, orcas, and other toothed whales. I'll see if I can find the correct Russian term... HorsePunchKid 05:44, 2005 Jan 4 (UTC)

Distribution

The article states that the orca "is the second-most widely distributed mammal on Earth (after humans)". I found that a bit surprising, thinking that honor belonged to Mus musculus (the house mouse), which lives nearly everywhere that humans do. But I'm no expert. Has anyone verified this statement? --Rick Sidwell 04:26, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I think when you include the large swaths of ocean that orcas pass through, the total surface area of the earth in which one could possibly be found naturally is greater. I suspect the mouse you refer to is rather the most widespread mammal on land. HorsePunchKid 05:34, 2005 Jan 4 (UTC)

Capitalization?

Why is Orca capitalized throughout this article? If it's the general name of the species, shouldn't it be lower-case? I don't go around saying that I own a pet Cat or that I go to the zoo to see Giraffes and Elephants... is there something special about Orcas, or can we just say orcas? - Brian Kendig 04:34, 4 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I second this. I can't find anything online that supports the capitalization. If it isn't cleared up in the next day or so, I'm happy to go through and decapitalize it all. HorsePunchKid 05:28, 2005 Jan 4 (UTC)

I went ahead and took care of this. If lower case is good enough for ADW (and every other source I found), it's good enough for me! HorsePunchKid 06:09, 2005 Jan 4 (UTC)