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The killer whale is one of the most colorful and mysterious marine mammals on the globe with an extremely controversial reputation. Some people consider him a giant dolphin with a kind soul and a high level of intelligence, others - a dangerous and cruel predator, capable of killing not only for food, but also as a manifestation of aggression. Both versions are partly true; the behavior and character of the killer whale are determined by many reasons - from the conditions of origin of the species to diet.
Appearance of carnivorous killer whales
The color of this sea creature is black and white. The killer whale has a black back and sides, and has white spots on its throat and above its eyes. The killer whale can also be distinguished by the white stripe on its belly. But in some parts of the Pacific Ocean, black or white individuals can be found.
Killer whales have 2 rows of teeth. The length of one tooth varies from 13 to 15 cm. These predators can capture prey that weighs much more than them.
Coloring
Killer whales are black and white with a gray patch called the "saddle" or "cape" on their backs, just behind the dorsal fin. Large areas of black and white are clearly separated. The entire dorsal surface and pectoral flippers are black, with the exception of the gray saddle. The ventral (lower) surface is predominantly white with small black borders near the rear fin. An oval white "spot" is located just above and slightly behind each eye. When viewed from above, the animal blends into the darker ocean depths. When viewed from below, the light surface of the belly merges with the brighter surface of the sea.
Subspecies of killer whales
The most common subspecies is the common or carnivorous killer whale . She is the most bloodthirsty. Representatives of the subspecies weigh about 6-8 tons, their body length is about 10 m.
Carnivorous killer whale
A less famous subspecies is the black killer whale . The length of its body is less than 6 m, the weight of one individual is 1.5 or 1 ton. These predators prefer warm waters, therefore they can only be found in the waters of the temperate and subtropical climate zone: in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Individuals of this subspecies can be found near the Kuril Islands and in the Baltic Sea. The head of the black killer whale is small. The dorsal fin is located right in the middle of the body. The color is always black, but may be brown on the belly.
Black killer whale
These killer whales feed mainly on fish, namely cod and salmon. Mating in individuals occurs in the summer waters of Russia. Lesser killer whales can be found near the Kuril Islands, in the Sea of Japan and the Baltic Sea.
The pygmy killer whale is another subspecies of these mammals. This predator inhabits the waters of the tropics and subtropics. They can be seen in the Sea of Japan, near about. Sri Lanka and Hawaii. Many populations have been found in the southern Indian Ocean. The body length of an individual varies from 2 to 2.6 m. An individual weighs 110-170 kg. The dorsal fin is like a triangle, its height is only 20 cm. The dwarf killer whale has 48 sharp teeth. The color is greyish. The area around the mouth is painted white and there is a large white spot on the belly.
Pygmy killer whale
Dwarf killer whales live at a depth of 500 - 2000 m. They are reluctant to contact people.
Cubs development
Newborns are about 2.4 meters long and weigh about 140 kg. In the first days after birth, the dorsal fin and caudal fins are flexible and pliable. Over time, they gradually harden. The light areas on some juveniles may be creamy white to pale yellow or tan rather than white. They usually turn white by the end of the first year of life, although some individuals remain yellowish into adulthood.
Photo: Dave Elifrit
Most cubs are usually nursed for about a year. Killer whale milk is very fatty. Fat is an effective source of energy to speed up the metabolism of young animals. They are nursed for 5 to 10 seconds, several times an hour, 24 hours a day. In the first days of life, the total feeding time is about 45 minutes. As they get older, feeding time drops sharply to 10 minutes per day (one month of age) and to 5 minutes or less after two months of age.
All members of the pod are involved in raising the young. Weaning begins when the cubs are one year old and takes another year to complete the process. Most cubs grow about 64 cm during their first year and can gain about 400 kg. In the second year they grow approximately 53 cm.
Commercial value
In many European countries, commercial hunting of killer whales was banned in 1981, but today these predators continue to be hunted in Japan, Greenland, Russia, and Indonesia.
In Russia, a massive capture of killer whales is being carried out, despite the fact that this is prohibited. After being caught, they are often sold to aquariums. Today, white whales are sold to China for the entertainment of spectators. They perform tricks in aquariums. Recently, a breeding center for these predators opened in China, and many individuals also arrived there. In 2022, 11 killer whales were kept in captivity in the Far East. There they were kept in enclosures and ate rather poorly, which caused a public outcry.
They have their own language
The language of killer whales is one of the most complex in the animal kingdom.
They produce high-frequency whistles, pulse calls and low-frequency pops. They can even make sounds by flapping their jaws. Whistles are used for short-range or private communications, while pulse calls are used for long-distance communications. Members of the same group make the same calls, which the young learn from their mothers. In addition to vocal communication, killer whales interact through touch and various gestures such as head banging and fin flapping.
Natural enemies of killer whales
In the wild, killer whales have almost no enemies. However, humpback whales very often dare to attack these predators during their meal. Whales can protect other marine life from killer whales, including their own mates and calves. Humpback whales are able to do this due to the presence of flexible and long fins. Over time, they become overgrown with mollusks and become sharp as sabers.
Although today the nature of the relationship between killer whales and humpback whales is poorly understood. Some believe that opponents of killer whales are true altruists. Others believe that such a reaction is caused by sounds made by representatives of dolphins. Despite the fact that carnivorous killer whales rarely make sounds, they actively communicate while hunting.
Killer whales maintain parity with predators such as tiger sharks, sperm whales and humans. These animals believe that people can harm them during a conflict.
Social behavior
Killer whales form strong social bonds in groups. The strongest associative connections in the pod are those between mother and baby. A mother killer whale stays close to her newborn calf and carefully guides its movements. The bond between mother and calf weakens as the young mature, but in certain ecotypes the bond can remain strong even after they have matured.
Photo: Pixabay
Killer whales in a group may rank and establish dominance by slapping the water with their tails, butting their heads, snapping their jaws, biting and clawing with their teeth, and using various other energetic postures and gestures. Killer whales are among the most curious of all cetaceans, with a great tendency to "play" and manipulate objects.
What does it eat?
Killer whales often choose areas where there is the most food. Therefore, they can only be found on the open sea. Thus, they occupy approximately 800 km of coastal water space.
Killer whales eat approximately 31 species of fish, 1 species of turtle, and several species of cephalopods. These sea creatures also hunt small birds. These predators need 50-150 kg of food every day. Each “family” of killer whales prefers certain types of prey.
When hunting, all members of the pack act together, although they do not strive to take a larger piece for themselves. Killer whales have certain strategies. Thus, predators drive schools of herring into a circle, and then stun the fish with their tails. While trying to catch fur seals, killer whales destroy the ice floes on which the prey is located. These giants are capable of climbing onto ice floes, catching penguins and other pinnipeds. And if the victims cannot be killed, they constantly attack from the left, then from the right and bite different parts of the body. This is how killer whales exhaust their prey.
As long as there is enough food for all killer whales, they often interact with their relatives and do not harbor aggression towards them. However, with a shortage of prey, killer whales immediately begin to attack all surrounding dolphins and whales. Killer whales hunt large individuals in packs.
Many killer whales eat the catch of a huge number of ships in the world's oceans. They can also be “freeloaders”, eating all the food that is thrown overboard. In the Far East, individuals eat sea lions, cod and halibut from ships.
The Killer Whale Isn't Actually a Whale
The killer whale is not a fish, but a marine mammal. However, she is not a whale, but a dolphin.
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Lifestyle
Killer whales prefer to be part of a group. They usually willingly interact with individuals from other groups. Although in some parts of the Pacific Ocean there are two groups that have no contact with each other: resident and transient killer whales.
Representatives of resident killer whales eat only fish and very rarely attack pinnipeds. These killer whales form groups of 15 individuals and hunt schools of herring. During the hunt, they communicate with each other using echolocation. This type of killer whale remains in a certain area as long as the food supply is in good condition. But when resources become thinner, these predators become transit predators and simply swim away. Having found a new place, they again become resident.
Transiting killer whales do not make unnecessary sounds while tracking prey, but only listen to noises. These representatives of dolphins are born killers. They usually hunt down victims in a small group. Predators feed on whales and sea otters, birds and penguins. They can hunt dolphins.
Social structure
Orcas are highly social mammals, living in groups called pods. Their social structures can be compared to great apes, elephants and humans. Pods of resident killer whales (individuals that remain in a specific area, as opposed to transient ecotypes) are made up of smaller, denser groups. In turn, several pods make up a clan. Clans usually have common matriarchal ancestors. Clans inhabit overlapping geographic areas, and pods from different clans often travel together.
Due to the variety of "dialects" in their calls, killer whales can distinguish members of their groups from unfamiliar or less familiar individuals. The number of individuals in pods can vary greatly depending on the ecotype. Resident groups can have from 5 to 50 members (forming communities of 100 members), while temporary groups can have 7 or fewer members, sometimes containing only one adult male.
Reproduction and offspring
Many groups of killer whales are formed by adult females and her cubs of different sexes. In such groups there are usually about 18 killer whales, all of them are relatives. In rare cases, a male is at the head of the pack, but usually matriarchy reigns in families.
Each pack has special signals that they use to communicate with each other. Within the family, everyone treats each other very well. When conflicts arise, they can slap the water with their tails.
Females become sexually mature between 12 and 14 years of age and can give birth to cubs up to 40 years of age.
Orcas carry their cubs for about 17 months. The female produces offspring every 5 years, but sometimes this happens every 2-3 years. The maximum number of cubs per life is 6.
Size
Adult males are generally larger than females. The largest recorded male killer whale was 9.8 meters long and weighed 10,000 kg. The largest female recorded was 8.5 meters long and weighed 7,500 kg.
Photo: Stock image
The largest species is the Antarctic killer whale, reaching a length of 9.2 meters. The Ross Sea killer whale is considered the smallest ecotype. An adult female of this type grows on average to 5.2 meters, and an adult male - 5.6 meters, and the maximum length can reach 6.1 meters.
Population and species status
It is impossible to accurately determine the status of many populations of these predators. However, scientists are concerned about the situation of these marine inhabitants due to the following risk factors: substances polluting the hydrosphere that disable the immune and reproductive systems of killer whales, spills of oil products, noise from ships that interfere with communication between individuals.
They are protected from extermination by the International Marine Mammal Protection Act. According to this law, the capture of killer whales is permitted only for educational purposes.
Echolocation
The term "echolocation" refers to the ability of toothed whales (and some other marine mammals and most bats) that allows them to detect and distinguish objects by projecting high-frequency sound waves and listening for echoes. Echolocation helps killer whales determine the size, shape, structure, composition, speed and direction of an object.
The killer whale echolocates by producing clicks and then receiving and interpreting the resulting echo. Each click lasts less than one millisecond. Chains of clicks pass through the melon (the rounded area of the orca's forehead), which is made of lipids (fats). The melon acts as an acoustic lens, focusing these sound waves into a beam that is projected into the water in front of the killer whale. The sound waves created by the animal bounce off objects in the water, and their echoes return to the orca.
Photo: WSP
The main areas for sound reception are the fat-filled cavities of the lower jaw bones. Sounds are received and transmitted through the lower jaw to the middle ear, inner ear, and then to the hearing centers in the brain through the auditory nerve.
Interesting Facts
- The size of the white spots on the carnivorous killer whale's body is unique, as is the location of the spots.
- Killer whales hear well underwater. Their brains work much faster than humans. In these mammals, the ear capsule is not connected to the skull. Because of this, marine life can localize any noise, which is of great importance for echolocation.
- Killer whales are able to hear sounds whose frequency is less than 120 kHz. A person can distinguish sounds with a frequency of only up to 20 kHz.
- These sea creatures sometimes look out of the water to find food.
- There are no so-called “cones” in the eyes of killer whales, so they cannot distinguish between shades of blue and cyan. The lens of these mammals is spherical.
- These marine inhabitants also have a developed sense of touch. The areas around the mouth and eyes are the most sensitive.
- Killer whales do not have olfactory nerves because they spend almost their entire lives underwater. But the brains of these mammals are as well developed as those of primates. These predators can feel grief and love, anger and delight. They recognize their reflection in the mirror.
Thermoregulation
Photo: Royal Society Open Science
Like all mammals, killer whales are warm-blooded. Their body temperature ranges from 36.4 to 38 degrees Celsius. Life at sea poses a particular challenge for marine mammals because water conducts heat about 25 times faster than air at the same temperature.
The killer whale's large size helps minimize heat loss. In addition, just under the skin there is a thick 10 cm layer of fat, consisting of fat cells and fibrous connective tissue. Fat helps protect the animal from heat loss.
Mammals lose body heat when they exhale. Because killer whales breathe less frequently than land mammals, they retain a significant amount of heat. The circulatory system with countercurrent heat exchange also helps maintain body temperature.
Description
“Carnivorous dolphins” is the name given to the killer whale. The killer whale received this nickname due to its diet.
Hide Announcement: Habitat Appearance Lifestyle Nutrition Reproduction Taxonomy Meaning Enemies Life expectancy Red Book Interesting facts
These animals will have anyone they want for dinner, as they are capable of swimming at speeds of over 50 km/h. Killer whales can even feed on gray whales.
There is a lot of information on the Internet where it can be seen that killer whales show on video a high level of their intelligence. A mammal raised outside its will, it is easy to train. In the open ocean, the large dolphin also reveals its ability by passing on its hunting skills to its calves.
Nutrition
To understand what these animals feed on, just think about why killer whales are called killer whales. First of all, they are predators. Their diet includes:
- fish;
- seals;
- seals;
- whales;
- penguins;
- different types of fish.
There are several populations of these mammals and each of them prefers different foods. Solitary whales are called killer whales. Such individuals can even attack deer swimming across a water canal. Grouped animals eat fish. The daily norm for a male is 150 kg of meat.
Breeding
To breed Siamese Killer Whale, you need a spawning aquarium with a volume of at least 100 liters. In females, before spawning, the abdomen becomes significantly fuller. Usually, in preparation for spawning, pituitary injections are used, then eggs are collected manually from the female and milt from the males. Fertilization of eggs occurs artificially in a separate container. There are no facts of successful breeding of Siamese Killer Whale in an amateur aquarium yet. With professional breeding, it is possible to achieve numerous laying of eggs with a diameter of 1 mm. In this case, an important condition for spawning is an increase in temperature in the spawning area. Siamese killer whale fry are fed rotifers.
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Habitat
The range of the animals is wide, so it is difficult to answer where the killer whale lives. Most often, killer whales prefer cold or temperate waters, but they are also found in the tropics.
Just like other marine predatory animals, they strive for places overflowing with food. The natural prey of these mammals are fish and seals, so the habitat of killer whales coincides with the habitat of fur seals, powerful schools of fish.
Can sleep with one eye open
Like other dolphins, killer whales cannot go completely to sleep because they must come to the surface to breathe from time to time. Only one hemisphere of their brain sleeps. If the left eye is open, this means that the right hemisphere is awake and the left is asleep, and vice versa.
Economic importance
There is no industrial fishing. However, killer whales are one of the main objects of recreational fishing in the Amur River basin. The annual catch by amateur fishermen reaches 400-500 tons.
Killer whales are caught in the summer using bottom fishing rods (zakidushki). The bait is earthworms or the meat of river mollusks. The killer whale is so numerous that small individuals can eat all the bait put on the hooks.
Thorny thorns pose a danger to fishermen; you can get pricked. The body of the fish is covered with mucus; if a person injects himself, he can get inflammation of the skin or even suppuration
Remove the killer whale from the hook, carefully holding it with two fingers by the side surfaces of the upper spine. It is not recommended to throw the catch anywhere (for example, on the bottom of the boat, especially if the angler is not wearing shoes).
Before cutting, the spines are usually cut off with scissors or wire cutters.
The killer whale is not bony, the meat is tender, usually the fish soup is boiled or fried.
