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Killer Whale Mousepads and Gifts |
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More About Killer Whales ...
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The Orca (Orcinus orca) is the largest member of the dolphin family (order Cetacea, subfamily Delphinidae) and a versatile predator. It is also known as a Killer Whale or Great Killer Whale, even though it is not a whale. The Killer Whale name is actually a corruption of the older Killer of Whales—the species is known to prey on juvenile and small cetaceans. Another term for the animal is Grampus. "Orca" is a latin word meaning both whale and demon. The word is the origin of orc, a legendary monster.
The animals are distinctively marked, with a black back, white chest and sides and a white patch above and behind the eye. They have a heavy and stocky body and a large dorsal fin. Males can be up to 9.5 metres long (a little over 31 feet) and weigh as much as 10 tons; females are smaller, reaching 8.5 metres (about 28 feet) at most and a weight of 7 or 8 tons. Calves at birth weight about 180 kg and are about 2.4 metres long (about 8 feet). At about 1.8m (about 6 feet), the dorsal fin of the male is taller than the female's, and more upright. From a distance, females and juveniles can be confused with various dolphin and porpoise species.
An Orca's diet depends entirely on availability, although pods can specialize and thus ignore potential prey. It is believed they require around 60kg of food daily. Their prey includes twenty species of cetaceans, five species of pinniped (seals), thirty species of fish (particularly salmon), seven species of bird and two species of squid, in addition to a variety of other sea creatures, occasionally including larger whales such as Fin Whales, Minke Whales, Gray Whales, or even young Blue Whales. Orcas even hunt and kill Great White Sharks for their nutrient-rich livers and to eliminate competitors for food. It is from their attacks on whales that they gained their name; they do not attack humans.
Orcas have one of the most sophisticated ultrasonic sounds of all animals who use this method of communication. Not only do they have regional "dialects", which produce slight variations in sound depending on their geographical distribution but each animal has two distinct 'callsigns'. One which distinguishes them as an individual and another that identifies the pod they belong to.
Orca has been targeted in commercial whaling, but catches are now insignificant. In the 1950s the U.S. Air Force, at the request of the Icelandic government used bombers and riflemen to slaughter orcas in Icelandic waters because they compete with humans for fish. The operation was considered a great success at the time.
In recent years, the Orca's intelligence, trainability, striking appearance, playfulness in captivity and its sheer size have made it a popular public aquarium or zoo attraction. This, combined with the fact that the animal is not aggressive towards humans, has led to the image of the species being rehabilitated from an object of fear like Great White Sharks to a respected predator, worthy of toleration, like the wolf in the United States. Orcas in captivity may develop pathologies such as dorsal fin collapse, seen in 60-90% of captive males.
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Taxonmony
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Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea
Family: Delphinidae
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Source: Wikipedia Read more about Killer Whales
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