Essay On Orca Whales

The marine mammal I have chosen to do my research paper on is the Orca Whale, also known as a killer whale. The genus or scientific name is Orcinus, also known as the killer whale. I have chosen to do my paper on this marine mammal because ever since I was young, I loved going to Sea World and watching the Shamu show. These incredible animals grow up to weigh as much as six tons and grow in length between 23 and 32 feet long, the relative size of a school bus. Orca or killer whales are easy to detect because of their distinctive markings, black and white coloring. Who wouldn 't want to write a research paper on such an amazing mammal like a killer whale?

Killer whales aren 't very difficult to find, considering they have be found in all the oceans across the world. Orca whales can be …show more content…
First off it depends on what the Orca whale is hunting, if they are hunting a school of fish it is different from if they are hunting a seal floating on an iceberg. If a pod of Killer whales is hunting a school of migrating herring. They surround the school and use different types of communication to confuse the school of migrating fish, then they hit them with their tail fins stunning and killing the fish then proceed to eat the school of fish. If an Orca whale is hunting a larger mammal like a baleen whale, they find a calve or weaker adult and chase them from the pod until the whale is tired and weak. The pod of Orca whale then blocks off the baleen whale from going up to the surface from getting oxygen. After the mammal is exhausted and weak the Orca pod goes in for a kill. The most interesting way I think is that the orca whales spot a lonely seal on an ice berg and get a group of whales to create a wave and push the seal off the iceberg into the water and eat the seal. Those are some amazing adaptions that the orca whales have to be successful hunters in the