I love animals, I'm actually quite passionate about learning more about them and just their overall being. Since I love the ocean a lot, I figured I'd write something about one of the world's most powerful predators and also a marine animal!
Killer whales, scientifically known the Orcinus orca. The killer whale actually belongings to the Delphinidae family, which actually means that it isn't really a whale but a dolphin.
These creatures are extremely huge and can be found in numerous places all over the world. The anatomy of the killer whale is quite interesting as you can see below:
A killer whale has 365 bones in its body and also has 40-56 teeth in its mouth!
Killer whales have one calf every 3-5 or even every 3-10 years and the pregnancy usually lasts up to 17 months. Baby orca's are called calves and weigh about 265-353lb. and are 8.5 ft. long!
Full grown killer whales weigh between 3-6tons and can be between 23-32ft long. They can even be even more larger than that!
In a day they will need about 375 pounds of food to be able to get the required energy for all the traveling they do. These creatures typically feed on sea lions, squids, sharks, sea otters, sea turtles, fish, dolphins, rays, octopuses, whales, seals, sea birds, and they eat most marine animals. Because of their huge anatomy, killer whales don't have any predators.
When killer whales go hunting they do it in groups called pods, which are usually led by the females. Killer whales are very social animals and like to stick together. They have very cool ways to communicate by making different vocalizations such as pulsed calls, whistles, jaw claps(sounds quite painful if you ask me), low frequency pops and echolocation clicks.
These animals aren't just huge, they are absolutely gorgeous, strong and loving!
Amazing
Wow so amazing☺️
Wow! Very informative. As always, it is nice to read your blogs :)
Thanks for sharing the information.
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoy reading them.
My pleasure :)
Great post! Last year shark diving charters in Cape Town, noticed that they where not seeing great white sharks when taking tourists out for cage diving.
They came across some shark carcasses with the livers removed and later found out that a group of Orcas where hunting around the Cape coast, South Africa.
South Africa is the closest thing to the South Pole which is the original habitat of the killer whales. They've also discovered some Elephant Seals on nearby islands (very close to the Cape), which is not a natural habitat for these creatures. No one is sure why these animals are so far from their home. Theory is global warming.
This was an article last year: https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/look-orcas-in-cape-waters-killing-white-sharks-8999601
They hunt exactly like the lions the females in the lead, their strategy in ambush is amazing...
@bluepanda