Killer whales or Orca is a tooted whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member of the family : DELPHINIDAE. Scientifically killer whales are called (Orcinus orca), this tooted whales are apex predators and have a wide variety of food options from salmons to bigger whales, although their favorite food depends on the species and environment of the whales.
Orcas where called originally called "whale killers" before it was swapped and called killer whales. The name killer whale originated earlier back when they seen attacking bigger whales although just as the world doesn't share a common language, orcas have lots of names depending on the country, language and tribe with various interpretation to those names ranging from "embodiment of evil" to "ocean rulers".
(Note: I will be using the word killer whale and orca interchangeably in this article )
Habitat, features and character:
Orcas live in all the worlds oceans but prefer to stay in cooler water like those around the arctic regions, regions such as British Columbia and Washington are areas with heavy sighting of killer whales. Orcas have a mass of about 3000 - 4000 kg for adults and can live for about 10 - 45 years in captivity depending on the gender (Male or Female), they are also 6 - 8 meters long depending on the gender.
killer whales are highly social animals and are known to travel together as a group known as "pods", they are known to hunt together, play together and do many other thing they do together (i have no idea how they plan their together daily routine because i am human)
Specie:
Killer whales have species that have been seen in the Pacific Northwest , this region (pacific northwest) is the commonly talked about when discussing killer whales and the species seen around this region are three, Resident orcas, Transient orcas and Offshore orcas. (All these species of orcas are also call the "ecotypes").
Residents orca:
Resident orca also known as South residents stays close to the shores and sometimes stay in inlet waters around Washington and British Columbia. Resident orcas work together in large numbers and they primarily eat fish especially Salmons.
Transient orca:
Transient orca are known to be more travelers, they journey along the western coast from Alaska to south California, they primarily eat mammals such as seals and whales. Transient orcas move in smaller parks that may consist of roughly 3 - 6 individual orca and they are the biggest in size often called the bigg orca.
Offshore orca:
Offshore orca as the name implies stay offshores, they are largely unknown and rare compared to other species of orcas. Offshore orcas are however known to be closely related to resident orcas than transient orcas, they move in parks of about 20 individual orca like resident orcas do and offshore orcas are known to eat sharks.
Population and threats:
There is an estimated population of about 50,000 orcas globally, this numbers are currently decreasing and the resident orcas are now enlisted as endangered species and may get to vulnerable soon.
Killer whales have close to no natural predators besides humans and changing climate. Climate change and humans may be primarily responsible for the decrease of salmons that are available to residents orcas, dams obstruct most salmons from getting back to their breeding grounds and reduces the number of salmons that gets to the orcas for food. Noise pollution and toxic waste also contributes to decrease in population of aquatic life, this spread in pollution and toxic waste needs to be stopped if we are to save some species of aquatic life like orcas from going extinct.
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