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The orca (Orcinus orca), or killer whale, is a toothed whale and the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family. It is the only extant species in the genus Orcinus and is recognizable by its black-and-white patterned body. A cosmopolitan species, it is found in diverse marine environments, from Arctic to Antarctic regions to tropical seas.
Orcas or killer whales have a cosmopolitan distribution and several distinct populations or types have been documented or suggested. Three to five types of orcas may be distinct enough to be considered different races , [ 1 ] subspecies , or possibly even species [ 2 ] (see Species problem ).
The genus Orcinus was published by Leopold Fitzinger in 1860, [4] its type species is the orca named by Linnaeus in 1758 as Delphinus orca.Taxonomic arrangements of delphinids published by workers before and after Fitzinger, such as John Edward Gray as Orca in 1846 and Orca (Gladiator) in 1870, are recognized as synonyms of Orcinus.
On June 13, 2022, an unidentified trainer was washing "paint and food chips" out of the mouth of the two-and-a-half-ton killer whale, Malia. The trainer was said to have broken the three foot rule and moved her right arm across the whale's mouth when the whale bit down and then "immediately" released the trainer.
Tahlequah (born c. 1998), also known as J35, is an orca of the southern resident community in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. She has given birth to four known offspring, a male (Notch) in 2010, a female (Tali) in 2018, another male (Phoenix) in 2020, and an unnamed female calf in 2024.
Initially named Walter the Whale, [144] [145] this orca was taken into captivity during the Yukon Harbor orca capture operation, which was the first planned, deliberate trapping of a large group of orcas (killer whales). 15 southern resident orcas were trapped by Ted Griffin and his Seattle Public Aquarium party on 15 February 1967, in Yukon ...
False killer whale breaching. The false killer whale is an apex predator, inhabiting tropical and subtropical waters. [32] [33] Generally, the false killer whale targets a wide array of squid and fish of various sizes during daylight hours. [9] [34] They typically target large species of fish, such as mahi-mahi, wahoo and tuna.
Although ten years was an extremely young age for a killer whale to become a mother, Kalina was the first killer whale calf to be successfully born and raised in captivity. [129] In turn, Kalina gave birth at only seven and a half years of age to her first calf, a male named Keet. [46] Gudrun was an Icelandic female caught in the 1970s. In 1993 ...