don't go where I can't follow

everyone’s back home safe

It can almost certainly tell different species apart based on the shape of those air bladders. And it can tell if a fish has something weird inside it, like a metal hook. In Hawaii, false killer whales often pluck tuna off fishing lines, and “they’ll know where the hook is inside that fish,” Aude Pacini, who studies these animals, tells me. “They can ‘see’ things that you and I would never consider unless we had an X-ray machine or an MRI scanner.”

This penetrating perception is so unusual that scientists have barely begun to consider its implications. The beaked whales, for example, are odontocetes that look dolphin-esque on the outside—but on the inside, their skulls bear a strange assortment of crests, ridges, and bumps, many of which are only found in males.

Pavel Gol’din has suggested that these structures might be the equivalent of deer antlers—showy ornaments that are used to attract mates. Such ornaments would normally protrude from the body in a visible and conspicuous way, but that’s unnecessary for animals that are living medical scanners.’

I'm not sure if I ever shared this story before here, but in Curacao, when I was allowed to assist in a guest interaction programme, there was suddenly consternation in the pool behind us. A guest had entered the water and the dolphins were going crazy, paying no heed to the trainers anymore. The lead trainer that was with me gave the dolphins to me to watch over while she went to help. When she came back she told me what had happened. The guest that had caused so much uproar had left the water again and was asked if he had done anything to upset the dolphins. He hadn't, and he couldn't imagine what was wrong... until he mentioned he had a pacemaker. The younger dolphins in the pool had never seen someone with a pacemaker before and apparently it rocked their world.

Mostly due to the need for orca enrichment to be solid enough to not be torn apart/swallowed - so the soft enamel teeth designed for tearing blubber/meat or grabbing fish will wear down from grabbing hard plastic EEDs.

Concrete chewing is more of a problem in some groups than others and I believe it has a lot to do with orcas learning the behaviour from one another rather than simply "boredom". And the simple fact that they don't have hands so they explore their environment with their teeth.

Teeth do not seem to be an overall indication of welfare or poor living conditions. Because Tokitae was objectively living in an unsuitable environment yet maintained incredibly healthy teeth into her 60's.

We also do see tooth wear in wild populations of orca:

(Source)

This is a population in New Zealand - but it makes sense that tooth wear isn't super common as these orcas are feeding on rays.

(Source)

We can see that a lot of teeth wear is related to diet in wild orcas, whereas that's not the case in captive orcas.

The most compelling theory, in my opinion, is that it's mostly related to how the orcas choose to interact with toys and their environment. There's also some data to suggest that pulpectomy to assist with tooth damage may have caused further complications with dentition as well as increasing chances of infection.

Unfortunately the papers claiming that captive orcas are all suffering tooth pain did not do any sort of veterinary examination or compare any sort of baseline behavioural data for pain indication... But of course, it made a great headline, so it was uncritically reported by media outlets and used as a source.

Technology has significantly increased since the days of pulpectomy - what happens now is veterinarians, with assistance of trainers, can use a laser thermometer to look for signs of increased heat/inflammation in individual teeth. This allows them to pick up any tooth pain or infection quickly and get onto treatment. They also will brush/flush out the orca's teeth twice a day.

You can see explanation of teeth temperature testing here from Loro Parque:

I also might write a fanfic . idk . thank you .

Instead of cooking for one, he has loud dinners with the company full of laughter and singing. Instead of smoking a lonely pipe on his porch, there's watching Dís tell Fíli and Kíli off for pulling some stupid prank or listening to Thorin play the harp in front of the fireplace. Instead of reading in his silent bedroom, there's muffled footsteps and little grunts as Thorin gets ready for sleep before joining him in their bed.