Some orcas have discovered that flipping sharks upside down can paralyze them. Off the Crozet Islands, mothers push their calves onto the beach, waiting to pull the youngster back if needed. Off Península Valdés, adults sometimes pull seals off the shoreline and then release them again near juvenile whales, allowing the younger whales to practice the difficult capture technique on the now-weakened prey. This is most strikingly seen when killer whales deliberately beach themselves to catch seals. Killer whales imitate others, and seem to deliberately teach skills to their young.
Ī killer whale plays with a ball of ice, soon after a researcher had thrown a snowball at the whale. They can be trained in captivity and are often described as intelligent, although defining and measuring "intelligence" is difficult in a species whose life is very different from ours. Killer whales have the second-heaviest brains among marine mammals. The killer whale's large size and strength make it among the fastest marine mammals, able to reach speeds in excess of 30 knots (56 km/h). Calves at birth weigh about 180 kilograms (400 lb) and are about 2.4 metres (7.9 ft) long. The largest male killer whale on record was 9.8 metres, weighing over 10 tonnes, while the largest female was 8.5m, weighing 7.5 t. Females ("cows") are smaller, generally ranging from 5 to 7m and weighing about 3 to 4 t. Males (called "bulls") typically range from 6 to 8 metres long and weigh in excess of 6 tonnes. Killer whales are the largest living members of the dolphin family. Their behaviour and hunting techniques also differ. They do not interbreed and seems to be subspecies or even separate species. There are several different types of Orca, each of which has different living and prey habits. In 1997, the first known killer whale attack on great white sharks was documented off the coast of San Francisco. Killer whales eat many different kinds of prey, such as small sharks, seals, sea lions, dolphins, whales, penguins, seagulls, squid, octopuses, stingrays, crabs and sea turtles. Members of the pod work together to surround their prey. Killer whales are apex predators and they hunt in family groups called 'pods'. Like all toothed whales, they are carnivores. They live in pods, which are family groups. They are found in all the world's oceans, from the cold of the Arctic to the tropical seas. Killer whales, or Orcas ( Orcinus orca) are the largest dolphins.
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