- Killer Whale Dolphin Battery Pack 17.5
- False Killer Whale Dolphin
- Killer Whale Dolphin Offspring Pictures
Dolphins may seem cute and friendly, but the largest member of the dolphin family is actually none other than the ultimate hunter of the sea — the killer whale, also known as an orca. Killer whales, collectively known as Orcinus orca, form matrilineal family groups, with adult male sons sticking by their mothers for life, Baird said. They're the largest member of the dolphin.
Killer Whale Dolphin Battery Pack 17.5
Common Name: Orca (Killer Whale)
Scientific Name: Orcinus orca
Type: Mammals
Diet: Carnivores
Group Name: Pod
Average life span in The Wild: 50 to 80 years
Size: 23 to 32 ft
Weight: Up to 6 tons
Diet
Orcas feed on fish, squid, birds, and marine mammals. Like dolphins, orcas use echolocation - bouncing sound off of objects to determine their location - to hunt and use a series of high-pitched clicks to stun prey.
Did You Know?
The orca's large size and strength make it among the fastest marine mammals, able to reach speeds in excess of 35mph!
Members of orca pods very often work together to catch a meal. Pod members sometimes will force many fish into one area and then take turns feeding or will beach (slide out of the water onto the shore) themselves to scare seals or penguins into the water, where other killer whales are waiting to feed.
Population
Official worldwide populations of orcas are currently unknown, but likely not to be less than 50,000 individuals.
Range
Did You Know?
Many orcas live with their mothers for their entire lives!
Found in all oceans of the world, orcas are most common in the Arctic and Antarctic and are often spotted off the west coast of the United States and Canada. Orcas are found in both coastal waters and open ocean.
Behavior
Orcas are highly social animals that travel in groups called pods. Pods usually consist of 5 - 30 whales, although some pods may combine to form a group of 100 or more. Orcas establish social hierarchies, and pods are led by females. The animals are thought to have a complex form of communication with different dialects (slightly different language) from one pod to another.
Reproduction
Orca gestation is 13 to 16 months. A calf is born in autumn weighing almost 400 pounds and measuring up to seven feet in length. A calf will remain with its mother for at least two years.
HearingKiller whales have a well-developed, acute sense for hearing underwater. A killer whale's brain and nervous system appear physiologically able to process sounds at much higher speeds than humans, most likely because of their echolocation abilities.
Soft tissue and bone conduct sound to a toothed whale's middle and inner ears. In particular, fat lobes in the whale's lower jaw appear to be an adaptation for conveying sound to the ears.
In killer whales, the ear bone complex (ootic capsule) isn't attached to the skull. Ligaments hold each ear bone complex in a cavity outside the skull. This separation of the ear bone complex allows a killer whale to localize sound (directional capacity), which is important for echolocation.
Hearing range. Early studies published in 1972 suggested that the hearing range of killer whales was about 0.5 to 31 kHz. More recent studies show killer whales could hear sounds at frequencies as high as 120 kHz. Greatest sensitivity ranged from 18 to 42 kHz with the least sensitivity to frequencies from 60 to 120 kHz. In comparison, the range of hearing of a young, healthy human is 15 to 20,000 Hz (0.015–20 kHz). Human speech falls within the frequency band of 100 to 10,000 Hz (0.1–10 kHz), with the main, useful voice frequencies within 300 to 3,400 Hz (0.3–3.4 kHz). This mainly falls within a killer whale's hearing range.
EyesightKiller whale vision is well developed.
The strongly convex (spherical) lens of a marine mammal differs from that of a land mammal.
In the eye of a land mammal, the cornea focuses light rays toward the lens, which further focuses the light rays onto the retina. Underwater, the cornea isn't able to adequately focus waves into the lens because the refractive index of water is similar to that of the interior of the eye. The eye of a marine mammal compensates for this lack of refraction at the cornea interface by having a more strongly spherical lens. It is more similar to the lens of a fish's eye than the lens of a land mammal's eye. In air, a marine mammal's eye compensates for the added refraction at the air-cornea interface. At least in bright light, constricting the pupil helps, but it doesn't fully explain how a whale achieves visual acuity in air. Research is ongoing.
DNA analysis of several other species of toothed whales indicated that the eyes of these whales do not develop pigment cells called short-wave-sensitive (S-) cones, which are sensitive to blue light. Researchers theorize that all modern cetaceans, including killer whales, lack these visual pigments and therefore aren't able to discriminate color in the blue wavelengths.
TactileAnatomical studies and observations of behavior indicate that a killer whale's sense of touch is well developed. Studies of closely related species (common dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, and false killer whales) suggest that the most sensitive areas are the blowhole region and areas around the eyes and mouth.
Taste
In zoological parks, killer whales show strong preferences for specific types of fishes. Overall, however, little is known about a whale's sense of taste.
Behavioral evidence suggests that bottlenose dolphins, a closely related species, can detect three if not all four primary tastes. The way they use their ability to 'taste' is unclear.
Scientists are undecided whether dolphins have taste buds like other mammals. Three studies indicated that taste buds may be found within 5 to 8 pits at the back of the tongue. One of those studies found them in young dolphins and not adults. Another study could not trace a nerve supply to the taste buds. Regardless, behavioral studies indicate bottlenose dolphins have some type of chemosensory capacity within the mouth.
Smell
Olfactory lobes of the brain and olfactory nerves are absent in all toothed whales, indicating that they have no sense of smell. Being air-breathing mammals that spend a majority of time under water, a sense of smell would go largely unused in killer whales.
Mating Activity
Females come into estrus or 'heat' several times during the year. Observations of females in zoological parks indicate that killer whales undergo periods of multiple estrous cycling (polyestrus), interspersed with periods of noncycling. On average, females may have four estrous cycles during one polyestrus period. This period is highly variable, as is the period of noncycling, both for one whale over time, and between whales. Killer whales are polygamous: they mate with several partners.
Commonly known as killer whales, are orcas really as evil as they sound?
This monochromatic marine mammal has been rumored to play with its lunch: innocent, giggling dolphins. But! Everything isn't as it seems.
First and foremost, a correction needs to be made. Orcas are not whales, despite their pseudonym. They're dolphins. One guess is that they used to be called 'killers of whales,' which got shortened to 'killer whales,' and the misnomer stuck.
When we consider their diet, eating dolphins technically means they're eating members of their own. If it's true.
Orcas eat a variety of sea life. They eat small fish, medium-sized penguins, and large seals and sea lions.
Killer Whales vs Dolphins
Hunting groups are roughly broken down into resident pods (fish eaters) and transient pods (mammal eater).
Transient pods have been known to take down a dolphin every now and again, but they're not a regular food source.
Dolphins are very fast swimmers and not worth the orca's time to catch when there are so many other viable food sources.
If an orca does manage to catch up to one, it'll ram the dolphin in an attempt to stun it and gain the advantage.
The orca's technique for attack is chasing its prey to exhaustion. It can usually outswim the young or the weak and catch them once they've given up. Dolphins give them a run for their money.
The killer whale's Latin name, Orcinus orca, translates to 'belonging to Orcus.' Orcus was the Roman god of the underworld, providing another reasonable translation: 'of the kingdom of the dead.'
Makes sense, given orcas' undisputed power at the top of the food chain. This position is maintained by their impressive speed. The have been recorded to swim as fast as 33 mph – at most. On average, they go slower.
Dolphins rival orcas at an average of 27 mph, proving to be a formidable racing opponent.
Orcas are the only predators of white-sided dolphins in the northern Pacific, but not all of them.
In 2019 a group of researchers observing dolphins at play noticed a large pod of orcas hanging out dangerously close.
At first confused by this seemingly blasé attitude of the dolphins, researchers realized that the pod was made up of southern resident killer whales (SRKW).
This species of orcas do not eat dolphins. Transient killer whales (TKW) are the real threat. To the human eye, the two are almost identical. How did the dolphins know?
Scientists aren't 100% sure. SRKWs are known to be chattier than TKWs; perhaps their gregarious behavior drew the dolphins in to safe territory.
In fact, scientists have seen dolphins purposefully swim up to SRKWs and play about them for days on end.
One hypothesis is that the dolphins knowingly behave this way to avoid their enemy: the two types of orca whales actively avoid each other. By hanging out with SRKWs, the dolphins could be safe from TKWs. We don't know if this is actually the dolphin's conscious plan, though.
Dolphins are lucky to have few predators. Their size and speed make them unlikely to be caught by lesser carnivores.
Its most likely predators are different species of sharks who tend to aim for the slower, weaker calves.
What are the biggest threats to Dolphins?
Arguably the biggest threat to dolphins are humans. In some places dolphin meat is a delicacy. In others, they're bycatch: unintentional casualties while netting other fish. In general, boats and pollution can cause harm and injury, even death.
Aside from dolphins, orcas eat a wide variety of sea life. Resident pods go for herring, salmon, stingrays – even sharks are usual prey, from threshers to hammerheads to basking sharks.
There are records of them attacking great whites, which isn't too surprising since they are almost twice as big and twice as heavy as the shark.
False Killer Whale Dolphin
In terms of vertebrates, transient orcas have been known to eat 32 different types of cetacea, the infraorder that includes dolphins, porpoises, and whales – their closest kin.
The killer whale's Latin name, Orcinus orca, translates to 'belonging to Orcus.' Orcus was the Roman god of the underworld, providing another reasonable translation: 'of the kingdom of the dead.'
Makes sense, given orcas' undisputed power at the top of the food chain. This position is maintained by their impressive speed. The have been recorded to swim as fast as 33 mph – at most. On average, they go slower.
Dolphins rival orcas at an average of 27 mph, proving to be a formidable racing opponent.
Orcas are the only predators of white-sided dolphins in the northern Pacific, but not all of them.
In 2019 a group of researchers observing dolphins at play noticed a large pod of orcas hanging out dangerously close.
At first confused by this seemingly blasé attitude of the dolphins, researchers realized that the pod was made up of southern resident killer whales (SRKW).
This species of orcas do not eat dolphins. Transient killer whales (TKW) are the real threat. To the human eye, the two are almost identical. How did the dolphins know?
Scientists aren't 100% sure. SRKWs are known to be chattier than TKWs; perhaps their gregarious behavior drew the dolphins in to safe territory.
In fact, scientists have seen dolphins purposefully swim up to SRKWs and play about them for days on end.
One hypothesis is that the dolphins knowingly behave this way to avoid their enemy: the two types of orca whales actively avoid each other. By hanging out with SRKWs, the dolphins could be safe from TKWs. We don't know if this is actually the dolphin's conscious plan, though.
Dolphins are lucky to have few predators. Their size and speed make them unlikely to be caught by lesser carnivores.
Its most likely predators are different species of sharks who tend to aim for the slower, weaker calves.
What are the biggest threats to Dolphins?
Arguably the biggest threat to dolphins are humans. In some places dolphin meat is a delicacy. In others, they're bycatch: unintentional casualties while netting other fish. In general, boats and pollution can cause harm and injury, even death.
Aside from dolphins, orcas eat a wide variety of sea life. Resident pods go for herring, salmon, stingrays – even sharks are usual prey, from threshers to hammerheads to basking sharks.
There are records of them attacking great whites, which isn't too surprising since they are almost twice as big and twice as heavy as the shark.
False Killer Whale Dolphin
In terms of vertebrates, transient orcas have been known to eat 32 different types of cetacea, the infraorder that includes dolphins, porpoises, and whales – their closest kin.
Killer Whale Dolphin Offspring Pictures
They are also known to eat sea lions, seals, and walruses. Rare instances have them consuming cormorants, gulls, sea otters, and even deer wading between coastal islands.
Killer whales seem to be the teenage boy of the ocean – eating anything they can get their fins on. Their nickname is slightly unfair. Comfortably at the top of their food chain, orcas are evidently powerful and use some shocking techniques to paralyze and consume their prey.
Sources:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/o/orca/
https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/marine-animals/facts-about-orcas/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whale#Feeding
