What Other Animals Are Fight For The Same Resources As Killer Whales

Orca

Orcinus orca

Status: Endangered

Description

Orcas, too known equally killer whales, are among the world's most easily recognized marine mammals. The largest member of the dolphin family unit, orcas are highly intelligent and social animals, spending their lives in groups or pods where they hunt together and share responsibleness for raising young and taking care of the sick or injured.

Adult orcas have shiny black backs, white chests and patches of white above and behind their optics. They have paddle-shaped pectoral fins and tall triangular dorsal fins. Their singled-out coloring mean they are like shooting fish in a barrel to place and rarely dislocated with other dolphins or whales. Orcas vary in size depending on where they live. Adult males are larger than adult females, with males reaching 32 feet (ten meters) in length and females growing to 28 feet (eight.five meters).

Range

Found in every ocean on the planet, orcas are likely the most widely distributed mammal in the world, next to humans. There are 3 singled-out types of orcas recognized in the eastern North Pacific Ocean—transient, resident, and offshore. Residents alive shut to shore in large pods of about ten to 20 individuals and feed primarily on fish. Offshore orcas are similar to residents, just are distinguished past their smaller overall size and rounded, nicked fins. Transient orcas live in smaller groups of most three to seven individuals and spend their lives out at body of water where they prey on seals, sea lions, and other dolphins (which, strangely, are the same animals that resident orcas similar to swim and play with). All three types of orca have genetic differences and do not mingle or interbreed.

Diet

These powerful predators feed primarily on other marine mammals, including seals, sea lions, and even whales. Known by some as "wolves of the bounding main," orcas hunt in packs, using their numbers to herd prey into a minor or isolated surface area before attacking. Specific populations, like those found in Puget Audio, tin can develop specialized diets of fat fish such as salmon or herring. An developed orca consumes an average of 500 pounds of food a day.

Beliefs

Even though orcas can see higher up and beneath h2o, it is their hearing and echolocation abilities that help them locate objects in the water. By emitting clicks and listening for echoes, orcas are able to determine the size, distance, shape, and direction of underwater bounding main life and objects.

Life History

Like other dolphins, orcas are extremely social animals. Within each pod, they plant complex social hierarchies, with females at the top. In pods of resident whales, offspring will stay with their mothers in the aforementioned pod for their unabridged lives. A single pod often has multiple families living together, with each family spanning as many as four generations. Transient pods are smaller and ordinarily comprised of ane adult female person and one or ii of her offspring.

There is no singled-out convenance season for orcas, but it is most common in summer. Afterwards a 15- to 18-month gestation menses, a female will give nascence to one calf, which she will so nurse for up to a twelvemonth. Female orcas have a longer lifespan (almost 50 years) than males (about 30 years).

Conservation

Similar other ocean-dwelling wildlife, orcas face increasing threats and challenges equally the world'southward oceans become more polluted and degraded. In 2005, orcas living in Puget Sound were listed equally endangered under the U.Due south. Endangered Species Deed. Scientists believe the pass up of wild Chinook salmon—a major orca nutrient source—besides as climate modify, pollution, and vessel noise, could eliminate this population of orcas unless dramatic steps are taken to save them.

Orcas also suffer from toxic chemical contamination. Chemicals similar PCB and Ddt, which get dumped into the sea via mining operations, offshore oil development, and agriculture, enter the food chain through zooplankton. Equally they move up the chain from invertebrate to fish to orca, these pollutants become full-bodied. Recent studies have found that orcas are amid the most contaminated marine mammals in the world, making them more susceptible to illness and probable causing reproductive difficulties.

Fun Fact

Orcas use "calls" to communicate with one some other. Inside resident pods, these calls course a dialect, which is unique to the pod and gets passed down from generation to generation.

Source: https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Mammals/Orca

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