Orca
Orcinus orca
The ocean's smartest hunter — and it isn't actually a whale.
Everybody calls it the killer whale, but the orca is really the largest species of dolphin on Earth. It lives in a family that never breaks up, speaks a dialect no other pod uses, and hunts with plans that get passed down from grandmother to grandchild.
On the conservation status
Scientists think orcas may be several different species, so the IUCN can't score them as one. Some groups, like the Southern Residents of the Pacific Northwest, are critically endangered with fewer than 75 individuals left.
- Length
- 6–8 m (20–26 ft)
- Weight
- Up to 5,400 kg (6 tons)
- Lifespan
- 50–90 years
- Diet
- Fish, seals, rays, even other whales
- Top speed
- 56 km/h (35 mph)
- Range
- Every ocean on Earth
The good stuff.
It's the world's biggest dolphin
Orcas belong to Delphinidae, the dolphin family. The name killer whale came from Spanish sailors who called them asesina de ballenas — whale killer. Someone flipped the words around and it stuck.
Grandma is in charge
Orca pods are matrilineal: the oldest female leads. Sons often stay with their mother their entire lives, and a male whose mother dies is far more likely to die himself within a year.
Every pod has its own accent
Each family uses a unique set of calls. Researchers can hear a recording and tell you which pod made it — the same way you'd recognise a friend's voice through a wall.
They come in different flavours
Resident orcas eat only fish and are obsessed with Chinook salmon. Bigg's (transient) orcas eat marine mammals and travel in silence. They live in the same water, don't mix, and don't interbreed.
Only a few animals go through menopause
Orcas, short-finned pilot whales, narwhals, belugas, false killer whales — and humans. Grandmother orcas stop having calves and spend the rest of their long lives leading the family to food.
Hunting is a family recipe
Some pods make waves to wash seals off ice floes. Some slide onto beaches in Patagonia to grab sea lions and wriggle back. Neither is instinct — mothers teach it, and different families use different techniques.
Wait, really?
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A big male's dorsal fin can stand 1.8 m tall — taller than most adults.
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The grey saddle patch behind the fin is as unique as a fingerprint, so researchers use it to name every individual.
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Orcas are the second most widely distributed mammal on the planet. First place: us.
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No wild orca has ever been recorded killing a human.
What it sounds like
A mix of clicks for echolocation, whistles for chatting, and pulsed calls that sound like a rusty gate mixed with a squeaky toy. Each pod's calls are different enough to be called a dialect.
Where you might see one
The Salish Sea between Washington and British Columbia, Norway's fjords in winter, and the coast of Península Valdés in Argentina.
The trouble
- Not enough Chinook salmon for the fish-eating populations
- Chemical pollution — as apex predators, orcas store more toxins than almost any animal
- Ship noise that drowns out the echolocation they hunt with
One real thing
Protect salmon rivers. A fish-eating orca is only as healthy as the river its dinner grew up in.
More ways to help