From having their own language to hunting down great white sharks, these mega marine
mammals are at the top of the food chain.
Here are 7 things you didn’t know about Killer Whales.
7.
Why is the Killer Whale called an Orca?
Both of the names come from the fear that this animal has instilled into our human hearts
over the centuries.
Their scientific name, Orcinus Orca, comes from the mythical Orcus.
You may not have heard much about him but he was the Roman god of death and the underworld,
AND the punisher of broken promises.
The genus Orcinus means “belonging to Orcus”.
In Latin orca also translates to large-bellied pot or jar but orc also refers to a whale.
So a large, whale in the shape of a jar belonging to the mythical punisher god of death seems
appropriate!!
I mean, we all know about their incredible hunting skills and their reputation is getting
more and more ferocious.
So why are they called “killer whales?”
It is thought not because they look like whales but because sailors and whalers would see
them killing whales and eating them.
I guess their name changed over time from Whale Killers to the Killer Whale.
6.
Killer Whales Can’t Smell The killer whale has very well-developed eyesight.
The convex or spherical lens of marine mammals differs vastly from those of land mammals.
A marine mammal's eyes compensate for the lack of refraction at the cornea interface
by having a more powerful spherical lens.
Killer whales also have a well-developed acute sense for hearing underwater, and they process
sounds at a much higher speed than humans.
They can hear each other from more than 10 miles away.
Studies have also shown that their sense of touch is very well developed, and the most
sensitive areas include areas around the eyes and mouth, and the blowhole region.
They emit a wide variety of communicative sounds, and they use echolocation to communicate
and hunt.
This means that they make noises and sounds that travel underwater until they encounter
objects, then bounce back, revealing the size, position, and shape of the object to the Orca.
This may also be why there are no attacks on humans, unlike sharks who might mistake
us for a seal and take an exploratory bite, orcas are able to detect our shape and learn
more about us much more quickly to know that we are not what they are looking for.
All toothed whales lack the olfactory lobes of the brain, as well as the olfactory nerves
themselves, which indicates that they have no sense of smell whatsoever.
Seeing as they live underwater, they have no real need for the sense of smell, and this
tends to be why all their other senses are exceptionally well developed.
Some people also believe that killer whales have a 6th sense.
They will avoid hunters even if they have travelled the same route for hundreds of years.
And they will do something fantastic right when the photographers and killer-whale watchers
have put their camaras away, or their battery has just died.
And now for number 5, but first do you know why orcas are black and white?
Leave your answer in the comments below!!
And be sure to subscribe if you are new here!
We have lots of videos, coming up!! 5.
Hunting Strategies Like I’ve said before Orcas are smart!
They are highly social and hunt in coordinated packs.
Their ingenuity and predatory intelligence is passed down from one generation to the
next.
Orcas will adapt their strategies according to their prey.
They use echolocation to find their prey, sending out sonar clicks that bounce back
to them and once they locate the target, it is ON!
When hunting for fish, orcas will surround a school into a tight-knit group and then
blast bubbles at them or hit them with their tails to stun them and then take turns picking
out the fish.
This is known as carousel fishing.
Tuna is another favorite fish but tuna are very, very fast!!
Orcas will often just chase tuna around until the fish gets exhausted, not really trying
to catch it so that they have enough energy to actually eat it!!
For larger tuna, orcas will tag team to chase it down or just steal the fish from fishermen’s
nets.
Orcas love to prey on young grey whale calves.
In an attempt to save them, the mother will try to go to shallow water but before then,
the orcas will grab the whales and try to drag them to deeper water and then take turns
holding them down until they drown.
The problem is that if the whale drowns in water that is too deep, the orcas won’t
be able to feed, so again they work together to keep the carcass towards the surface and
take turns feeding.
If they make a kill in deep water, they will go for the most interesting organs and parts
like the tongue.
This probably explains why so many great white sharks wash up missing their livers.
If you’ve seen Planet Earth, or National Geographic documentaries you have probably
seen orcas beaching themselves on the shore with a bunch of seals, scaring them into the
water.
Too bad for them, the rest of the pod is lying in wait beneath the waves, ready to grab any
that pass by.
Other orcas will toss them into the air to make them more vulnerable to attack.
A video captured by a whale-watching company called Eagle Wing Tours and its video production
company, Roll Focus Productions, in British Columbia captured a killer whale hitting a
seal with its tail and punting it about 80 feet into the air.
They prefer to debilitate their prey before trying to eat them.
In very cold climates like the antarctic peninsula they have developed the “Wave Wash”!
Seals will perch on ice floes to stay out of reach but generations of orcas have now
perfected the technique of charging at an ice floe in a tight formation then at the
last minute diving underneath the ice, creating a wave that sweeps the seal off.
If you have time you can watch this on BBC’s Frozen Planet Series.
They have about an 86% success rate.
Did I mention they also eat moose??
Try to figure out how they manage that!!
4.
Do they live up to their name?
Orcas aren’t whales themselves.
They belong to the dolphin family (Delphinidae) and it is the largest of all dolphins.
Whalers working off the coast of Australia claimed that Killer Whales would help them
hunt other whales.
They are also known for hunting pretty much anything regardless of size, including great
white sharks.
The scary thing is that when a pod of about 30 to 10o orcas comes together, nobody stands
a chance.
They love to eat seals, sea lions, squid, narwhals, grey whales dolphins and of course
fish and birds too.
Orcas are highly sophisticated and intelligent creatures and a pod will work together using
all kinds of strategies and techniques which of course, I am going to tell you more about.
Rudiger Riesch, a scientist at the University of London points out that marine mammals have
very sharp claws and teeth, so it is safer for orcas to debilitate them first, before
getting them anywhere near their face.
So they will use a combination of head-butts, rams, and slapping prey with their tail fins.
Their brutal attacks on innocent little whale calves, and narwhal breeding grounds, and
the fact that they like to play with their food before eating it makes them kind of scary.
Scientists in Canada also witnessed 2 orca whales killing one of their own calves.
They said they were horrified and fascinated at the same time as it was the first recorded
instance of an orca killing a calf of the same species.
So, is it deserving of the name Killer Whale?
What do you think?
Let me know in the comments below!!
3.
Killer whales have a unique dialect Killer whales, just like all aquatic mammals,
depend heavily on underwater sound for orientation, feeding, and communication.
There are three different categories of music that killer whales produce: clicks, whistles,
and pulsed calls.
Clicks are commonly heard during social interactions but are also mainly used for navigating and
locating prey and other possible obstacles in the surrounding environment.
Transients are typically silent, and sometimes uses a single click, called a cryptic click,
rather than the customarily used long train of clicks.
Family members of a resident pod use similar calls which are collectively known as a dialect.
These dialects are composed of specific numbers and types of discrete, and repetitive calls.
Within the matrilines, the call patterns and structure are very distinctive.
An individual’s dialect is learned through contact with its mother and other pod members.
Dialects seem to be an essential way to maintain group identity and cohesiveness.
The similarity in dialects can reflect the degree of relatedness between pods.
Biphonation is when both dominant call types and subset call types are used at the same
time.
The killer whales’ dialect not only differs between pods but also between types.
The frequency of a killer whales’ whistle ranges from about 0.5kHz to 40kHz.
Pulsed calls are however the most common vocalization by the killer whales.
Pretty advanced stuff right?
2.
Great White Shark vs Killer Whale It’s very hard to imagine the terrifying
great white shark as prey.
In 2017, beachgoers were horrified to stumble across the carcasses of Great White sharks
washed up on the beaches in South Africa.
These bodies ranged in size, from as small as nine feet to as big as sixteen feet, but
they all had large sets of puncture marks behind their pectoral fins.
What was eating the apex predator of the sea??
Scientists discovered that whoever murdered these five great white sharks, knew exactly
where to bite in order to get what they were hunting for – their livers.
It was determined that since a great white shark can detect a drop of blood in twenty-five
gallons of water, from three miles away, the only possible suspects that could pose such
a danger to these predators, were indeed the aptly named killer whales.
The great whites are not likely to rival the Orcas, as they tend to be a bit smaller in
size, and although they can attack in short bursts at high speeds, the Orcas can sustain
their high speeds much longer.
It was determined that the culprits of these killings had to be killer whales, due to the
size of the bite marks found on the bodies of the sharks.
If you compare these 2 predators it would look something like this:
Avg length of a great white shark: 15-20 feet, weight around 3 tons
Avg length of killer whale: 23-32 feet, weight up to 10 tons.
Plus, they work together giving them an enormous advantage.
However, it was always believed these apex predators stayed out of each other’s way.
So what happened??
Killer whales are adapting to changing ocean temperatures and conditions and figured out
that the great white’s liver is delicious and nutritious.
It is high in lipids, full of oil, protein, and vitamins.
So how do they get the liver out with surgical like precision?
Observations were documented of an Orca slamming into a great white shark off the Coast of
San Francisco in 1997.
The force of this blow stunned the shark enough to give the Orca the opportunity to flip the
shark over.
As if it were an expert in marine biology, it put the great white into tonic immobility,
giving the Orca the power to essentially drown the great white shark and bite out its liver.
So when these titans of the sea clash, the orca is faster, stronger, bigger AND hunts
in groups.
The great white is no longer safe.
Answer: Did you guess why orcas were black and white?
Scientists believe that their coloring helps camouflage them in the water.
It is hard for their prey to see them at different angles although it doesn’t seem like they
need it since they are apex predators after all.
There are most likely other evolutionary advantages that we just don’t know yet.
1.
Orcas and Humans While so far their behavior may seem intimidating
and violent, it is important to note that many Native American tribes respected the
killer whale and believed they were a special protector of humankind.
Killer whales were symbolic animals representative of mightiness and vigor, qualities aspired
to by warriors.
They were referred to as the “lords of the ocean” and would protect the waters with
the help of dolphins.
They travel in large groups and some tribes believe them to be reincarnated ancestors,
representing the strong bonds of family.
While they are respected for their power and liveliness, because of the brutal way they
hunt and kill they are also feared.
Orcas are curious and always eager to explore new things so when they follow boats and surfers
it makes people nervous.
However on maybe a surprising note, orcas have been said to protect humans as well as
other wildlife from sharks.
Orcas do not kill humans at sea.
Killer whales don’t hang out where people swim and the only deaths caused by them have
been in captivity.
In his book “The Killer Whale Who Changed the World” author Mark Leiren Young says
that killer whales have helped humans to hunt fish and whales in North America and Australia
for years.
In the late 19th century, orcas near Eden Australia would drive humpback whales into
the bay to the fishermen’s boats in exchange for the tongue and the lips of the whale.
It was known as “the law of the tongue”.
When the boats were sometimes capsized by the whales, the orcas would protect the fishermen
from sharks until they could get to safety.
Orcas like tender, soft flesh and we are just not on the menu.
Some researchers believe that orcas have very elaborate behaviours and each pod has its
own form of society.
Perhaps it is a social norm to not eat people.
For now, depending on how we treat them.
In captivity, orcas get bored and restless, but trainers at aquatic parks believe that
the attacks are not malicious, just playfulness getting out of hand.
Other researchers say it might not be in cold blood, but that orcas in parks cut off from
their pods and confined to such a small space are going to lash out.
In any case in the wild, there have been very few reported attacks and no fatalities.
While orcas are an apex predator, the are not considered endangered but fishermen around
the world consider them pests since they compete with them for their catch and they are hunted
by certain countries around the world for their meat.
Other small populations around the world are considered endangered as their food supply
begins to run out and their water is contaminated by human waste.
Thanks for watching!!
I hope you learned something new about this impressive animal.
Remember to subscribe before you leave and I’ll see you next time!!
Byeee