Killer Whales And Whales

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New Zealand Killer Whales and Penguins

What exactly are cetaceans? The Cetaceans family includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Even though the cetacean family depends on water or more specifically the ocean for survival, they are mammals just like we are. Warm blooded, give birth, nurse their young, and breathe air through their lungs doesn 't that seem familiar? Yes they have the same characteristics as us which makes us both mammals. Scientist believed that about millions of years ago the ancestors of the whales used to live on land. Isn 't that crazy? Can you imagine seeing whales just walking around? Well, not exactly, scientist believed that they looked kind of like a small dog and were probably related to the hippos and went
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They eat Squids, Octopus, Rays, Dolphins, Baleen whales, (wow talk about cannibalism), and many more species. It doesn 't matter the size or type of the animal the killer whale will eat it. When they need to catch bigger preys like baleen whales they have a way of hunting them. When Orcas are hunting Baleen whales they usually work together in their groups and chase after their prey until they are exhausted, (like they ran a marathon) and get isolated from their groups and then the killer whale blocks them from reaching the surface and getting their oxygen. Without their oxygen the baleen whales will drown and die because unlike fish they don’t breath through their gills. Killer whales do not use their teeth to chew and swallow their food instead when they catch small preys they eat them whole but when they are eating a big animal such as the baleen whales they use their teeth to break them apart before they can actually swallow them whole. Can you imagine us eating our meals whole without chewing? We humans would eventually get diabetes and die from all these foods. Killer whales are usually born from March to October yearly and can swim up just about 30 minutes after birth and I still can’t swim now. When they are babies they are called calves and they come tails first unlike us who comes headfirst. The females mature earlier than the males do. “Isn’t that surprising?” Females mature at the age of 6 to 10 years old while the males mature when they reach the age of 12 to 16. Killer whales don’t mate for life and usually change partners which is called polygamous. Females have an average life expectancy of 30 to 50 years in the wild, and a maximum lifespan of 60 to 70 years old for males, and over 80 to 100 years old for females. In captivity they are not that lucky they could die as young age as 9 years old and the average age expectancy for killer

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