Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Cetacea > Delphinidae > Orcinus > Orcinus orca

Orcinus orca (Killer Whale; orca)

Synonyms:
Language: French; Spanish

Wikipedia Abstract

The killer whale or orca (Orcinus orca) is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. Killer whales are found in all oceans, from Arctic and Antarctic regions to tropical seas. Killer whales have a diverse diet, although individual populations often specialize in particular types of prey. Some feed exclusively on fish, while others hunt marine mammals such as seals and dolphins. They have been known to attack baleen whale calves, and even adult whales. Killer whales are apex predators, as there is no animal which preys on them.
View Wikipedia Record: Orcinus orca

Infraspecies

Physeter microps microps

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
3
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Not determined do to incomplete vulnerability data.
ED Score: 7.44
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Gestation [2]  1 year 2 months
Litter Size [2]  1
Litters / Year [2]  0.2
Maximum Longevity [2]  90 years
Snout to Vent Length [4]  30 feet (923 cm)
Speed [5]  29.997 MPH (13.41 m/s)
Water Biome [1]  Pelagic, Coastal
Weaning [2]  1 year 3 months
Adult Weight [2]  4.395 tons (3,987.50 kg)
Birth Weight [2]  396.834 lbs (180.00 kg)
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Carnivore (Vertebrates), Piscivore
Diet - Endothermic [3]  50 %
Diet - Fish [3]  25 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  25 %
Forages - Marine [3]  100 %
Female Maturity [2]  10 years 4 months
Male Maturity [2]  13 years 6 months

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

+ Click for partial list (22)Full list (116)

Predators

Homo sapiens (man)[6]

Consumers

Range Map

External References

NatureServe Explorer

Audio

Play / PauseVolume
Provided by Center for Biological Diversity via Myxer Author: Jim Nollman

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 2de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 4Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 5Wikipedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
♦ 6Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
♦ 7Who's Eating Who
♦ 8Arctocephalus townsendi, Rebecca L. Belcher and Thomas E. Lee, Jr., MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 700, pp. 1–5 (2002)
♦ 9Food Web Relationships of Northern Puget Sound and the Strait of Juan de Fuca : a Synthesis of the Available Knowledge, Charles A. Simenstad, Bruce S. Miller, Carl F. Nyblade, Kathleen Thornburgh, and Lewis J. Bledsoe, EPA-600 7-29-259 September 1979
♦ 10Delphinapterus leucas, Barbara E. Stewart and Robert E. A. Stewart, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 336, pp. 1-8 (1989)
♦ 11The role of notothenioid fish in the food web of the Ross Sea shelf waters: a review, M. La Mesa, J. T. Eastman, M. Vacchi, Polar Biol (2004) 27: 321–338
♦ 12CephBase - Cephalopod (Octopus, Squid, Cuttlefish and Nautilus) Database
♦ 13Lontra felina, Serge Larivière, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 575, pp. 1-5 (1998)
♦ 14The role of capelin (Mallotus villosus) in the foodweb of the Barents Sea, A. V. Dolgov, ICES Journal of Marine Science, 59: 1034–1045. 2002
♦ 15Trophic Role of the Pacific Whiting, Merluccius productus, P. A. LIVINGSTON and K. M. BAILEY, Marine Fisheries Review 47(2), 1985, p. 16-22
♦ 16Neophocaena phocaenoides, Thomas A. Jefferson and Samuel K. Hung, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 746, pp. 1–12 (2004)
♦ 17Alaska Wildlife Notebook Series, Alaska Department of Fish and Game
♦ 18Stenella attenuata, William F. Perrin, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 683, pp. 1–8 (2001)
♦ 19Stenella frontalis, William F. Perrin, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 702, pp. 1–6 (2002)
♦ 20Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Audio software provided by SoundManager 2
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0