 The Orca, mostly known as a Killer Whale. Orcas live in groups, called pods, these pods may have 6 to 40 whales. Orcas are very intelligent , and they have very large brains. The Orca is a toothed whale. HABITAT: Orcas are a marine animal so they live in the ocean and many seas around the world. they can live in Arctic water and can also live in tropical waters. Orcas can be found in coastal and deep waters. Appearance: The Orca is black with white patches. They have a dorsal fin, and 2, large flippers. The males are much larger than the females, a male orcas fin can grow up to six feet, where as the females fin can only grow up to four feet. An Orca can grow up to be around 27 to 33 feet long, and weigh around about 8000 - 12000 pounds. DIET: Orcas have a range of different foods they might eat, most of the Orcas diet consists of sharks, seals, penguins, dolphins, whales. The average Orca eats up to 551 pounds a day. Orcas do not chew they swallow their food whole. Orcas hunt in groups, this is a very efficient way to capture their prey, to catch their prey they surround it or slid on the the ice or sand and quickly grab their prey, then they use they flippers to get back into the water. POPULATION: The Orca is endangered, but scientist do not know how much Orcas are left in the wild. WHY ARE ORCAS ENDANGERED?: Orcas are endangered because of Humans, there are two main reasons why the Orcas are endangered. One because of whaling, even though whaling is illegal, the Alaskan Eskimos are still aloud to go whaling for specific needs. Humans use to go whaling to uses to whales meat and blubber, the meat was used for food and the blubber was used for lipstick, before it became illegal. The second reason the Orcas are endangered is because of water pollution, this is causing the whales lives to become shorter. |
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