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Orcas (or killer whales) are large, powerful aquatic apex predators. There have been incidents where orcas were perceived to attack humans in the wild, but such attacks are less common than those by captive orcas. [1] In captivity, there have been several non-fatal and four fatal attacks on humans since the 1970s. [2]
Although resident orcas have never been observed to eat other marine mammals, they occasionally harass and kill porpoises and seals for no apparent reason. [106] Some dolphins recognize resident orcas as harmless and remain in the same area. [107] Orcas do consume seabirds but are more likely to kill and leave them uneaten.
On average, an adult killer whale in the wild may eat about three to four percent of their body weight daily, [82] or as much as 227 kg (500 lb) of food for a six-ton male. Their diet in the wild depends on what is available, and may include fish, walruses, seals, sea lions, penguins, squid, sea turtles, sharks and whales. [ 83 ]
A stoat surplus killing chipmunks (Ernest Thompson Seton, 1909) Multiple sheep killed by a cougar. Surplus killing, also known as excessive killing, henhouse syndrome, [1] [2] or overkill, [3] is a common behavior exhibited by predators, in which they kill more prey than they can immediately eat and then they either cache or abandon the remainder.
The herring population is not completely depleted by orcas because they never eat the whole herring ball during the feeding phase of carousel feeding. [2] The herring that are not consumed are able to escape from the orcas. This means the orcas do not completely deplete their food source and potentially the strongest herring will survive the ...
Tilikum was the largest orca in captivity. [8] He measured 22.5 feet (6.9 m) in length and weighed about 12,500 pounds (5,700 kg). [9] His pectoral fins were 7 feet (2.1 m) long, his fluke curled under, and his 6.5-foot-tall (2.0 m) dorsal fin was collapsed completely to his left side.
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In fiscal year 2007, the United States Navy spent $14 million on research on marine mammal training programs for object recovery and mine detection and had 75 trained dolphins. [ 15 ] In 2005, there were press reports that some U.S. military dolphins based on Lake Pontchartrain had escaped during the Hurricane Katrina flooding. [ 16 ]