Killer Whales: The Apex Predator of the Ocean

A killer whale attacking and killing a great white shark

Out of thousands of deadly and massive species that inhabit the world’s oceans there is one that is by far soupier to all and the apex predator of the seas. This species is called the killer whale or orca, a mixture of brute strength, sear size, amazing abilities, teamwork with other orcas, and one of the most intelligent creatures in the animal kingdom makes this animal an unstoppable killing machine. The many attributes that orcas have, they use to hunt an extremely wide variety of animals depending on their location in the world. Orcas have adapted and learned to hunt seals, birds, polar bears, whales and even great white sharks. Not even great white sharks are safe from orcas; there are videos of orcas easily killing great white sharks off the coast of California. In this blog post I will not only discuss how orcas hunt and kill such a variety of animals, but what allows them to do so and makes them so deadly.

Before you can understand how orcas hunt such a variety of species, you must first know what makes them such a deadly predator. Let’s first start with some basic facts about orcas; orcas can grow up to 30ft and weight up to 11 tons. That means that orcas are almost as large as a city bus, they also can swim up to speeds of 56kmh. The average life span for a killer whale in the wild is between 50 and 80 years (NationalGeographic). Killer whales are carnivores, which can easily be seen by the fact that they have between 40-52 three inch teeth. The sear size and speed of an orca makes its deadly; Killer Whales are also pod mammals meaning they live in groups that can be as large as 40 killer orcas (NationalGeographic). Orcas often work together in there pod to hunt prey. Orcas also have the second largest brain among ocean mammals, which makes it incredibly smart (PBS.org). It is also important to note that killer whales can be found almost all over the world and in recent years have started to migrate into colder climates like the arctic. One final attribute that adds onto the orcas impressive array of abilities is the fact that orcas use echolocation to hunt a lot of their pray. Echolocation is used by several other marine species and is done by “making sounds that travel underwater until they encounter objects, then bounce back, revealing their location, size, and shape” (NationalGeographic). Killer whales also use echolocation to communicate with other members of their pod. All of these features could easily make the killer whale the apex predator of the seas, but it’s how orcas utilize these features that really sets them apart from every other predator in the ocean.

Killer whales physical abilities alone make it incredibly deadly, however its intellectual prowess is just as important when it comes to survival and hunting. One way scientists determine how intelligent an animal is, is through the encephalization quotient (EQ). Basically EQ is “the ratio of an animal’s actual brain size compared to the expected brain size for an animal of its mass” (PBS.org). Humans have a score of 7 on this scale while bottlenose dolphins come in at 4 and orcas are a 2.5 (PBS.org). To help put this into perspective an average household cat has a score of 1, this means that Orcas are about 2.5 times smarter than cats (Science20.com).

Also like I said earlier Orcas use echolocation to not only hunt pray but communicate to each other. However just communicating to members of one’s own pod is not the full extent of killer whales language abilities. Much like humans, depending on where a killer whale is found in the world it has its own dialect. This is know because killer whales in different areas make different clicking noises for communicating then killer whales in other areas. Orcas have the ability to learn other orcas dialects if they spend enough time around them (zmeSceince.com). Not only can Killer whales learn other killer whales dialects but they have been observed mimicking the clicks and noises of dolphins they are familiar with (zmeSceince.com). This means that orcas have the incredible capability to not only learn a langue of another species but communicate with it. According to ZmeScience.com orcas “who were familiar with bottlenose dolphins started making similar sounds to the dolphins, with more clicks and fewer longer calls” (zmeSceince.com). This amazing skill has just recently been noticed in orcas and more research is currently being done in this field in order to learn the full extent of orcas communication abilities.

Another fact that shows how incredibly intelligent orcas are is that they are one of only a handful of species that has the cognitive ability to recognize their own reflection in a mirror. Other animals that fall under this category of being able to recognize themselves in mirrors are elephants, some primates, and dolphins (NationalGeographic). Orcas are part of the family of dolphins and like some other species of dolphins have this very rare ability to see themselves. This ability is only found in animals with large brains that highly social like dolphins, elephants, some apes and humans. What this shows about killer whales and these other animals is that they are aware of themselves, and “an animal that’s aware of itself can likely infer the thoughts of others” (SmithsonianMag.com). The above mentioned information really goes to show how unbelievably intelligent Orcas are. Not only do they have a high EQ score, but they possess the capability to communicate with one another and even possibly dolphins. On top of that they have the cognitive abilities to recognize their own reflection and they are self aware.

Now that you properly understand the full extent of a killer whales physical and intellectual abilities you begin to comprehend why they are the apex predator of the ocean. Orcas use all of these amazing capabilities to hunt an extremely diverse range of prey, depending on where the orca lives in the world. Killer whales adapt and learn in any environment they are placed in, in order to hunt whatever prey lives in that area. Out of the many different types of species orcas hunt I will explain how they go about hunting and killing 3 different species, that being seals on land, whales, and great white sharks. The way killer whales hunt these species is by far the most impressive, which is the reason why I will focus on them.

Heres a video of orcas attacking seals on land:

Let’s begin with sea lions and elephant seals on the Atlantic coast of South America in Argentina (PBS.org). Sea lions and elephant seals close to the shore line and the shallows aren’t safe from orcas. By deliberately beaching themselves orcas are able grab these seals from places that they should be safe from predators (PBS.org). How orcas do this, is by using their incredible speed and incoming waves they catch seals in the shallows off guard and grab them before they have a chance to flee. On this particular coast line there are a lot of very smooth rocks in the shallows that allow the orca to slide right back into the water after beaching itself (PBS.org). This really goes to show how clever and adaptable killer whales are, not even seals on land are safe from them.

Killer whales hunt different species of whales all over the world using a variety of methods but this method is by far the most impressive one that has ever been recorded. For a span of about 90 years between 1840 and 1930 Orcas off the coast of Eden Australia worked together with human whalers to hunt whales (zmeSceince.com). How this particular pod of orcas would cooperatively hunt whales with humans, is whenever a pod of whales would appear off the coast the killer whales would “shepherd them into Twofold Bay, and then alert the whalers to their presence and often help to kill the whales” (zmeSceince.com). One whale in particular would alert the whalers by tail slapping or breaching at the mouth of the Kaih River (zmeSceince.com). The whalers would then come out and kill the whales and allow the Orcas to feast on them before bringing them in. It appears the whales where originally the ones to innate this relationship with humans. It’s incredible to think that killer whales would work together with humans in order to successfully hunt and kill whales.

Here is a National Geographic documentary about orcas killing great white sharks:

If all of the previous information was not enough to convince you that killer whales are the apex predator of the ocean then this one final fact should. Killer whales have been seen many times hunting and killing great white sharks. Great white sharks only have one predator, that being Killer whales. There are a few places on earth where both great white sharks and killer whales can be found. One such place is off the coast of California where every year great white sharks and Orcas gather to feed on an abundant food supply, seals. How orcas go about hunting great white sharks is that they use their ability to rapidly accelerate to their advantage. They come up from a side angle and catch the shark off guard, by ramming it has hard as they can on its side (morpa.com). This cause the shark to flip upside down, the orca then proceeds to simply hold the shark upside down in its mouth. For many shark species when you flip them upside down it causes something called “tonic immobility” (zmeSceince.com). Basically tonic immobility causes the shark to become completely still and not move, if the shark isn’t flipped back over it will eventually suffocate to death. So once the shark is flipped over it no longer resists and all the orca has to do is hold it upside down till it suffocates to death. One of the fiercest predators in the ocean can be brought to its knees in a matter of seconds by one single killer whale.

There’s a reason why Orcas are called killer whales, it’s because their ability to find ways to murder just about any species in there realm is unparallel to any other animal in the animal kingdom. With a mixture of superb physical abilities, one of the smartest minds of all species, and amazing teamwork, orcas are able to hunt just about any species in the ocean and even some in the air and on land. Killer whales truly deserve their name, because without a doubt they are the apex predator of the ocean.

My sources:

Link to the picture at the top: http://www.lifeintheknow.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/killer-whale-kills-great-white.jpg

Link to 1st video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtF3FPyRVIw

Link to 2nd video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejYC3ymTei4&src_vid=ZnXp-X__E44&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_3350564109

http://www.science20.com/stars_planets_life/calculating_animal_intelligence

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/02/150214-animals-behavior-mirrors-dolphins-dogs-self-awareness-science/

http://blog.wwf.ca/blog/2014/02/25/apex-predators-arctic-ocean-can-one/

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/killer-whales-killer-weapon-brain/11352/

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/killer-whale/

http://www.zmescience.com/science/biology/killer-whale-dolphin-24102014/

http://mpora.com/articles/killer-whales-attack-kill-great-white-shark-australia#0AHz4RCg4JQvigo2.97