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Orcinus orca
Orcinus orca L. (1758)
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This website is a demonstrator for the integration of several informatics technologies useful in "in-silico" biodiversity science: Scratchpads, Taverna Player and BioVeL infrastructure for executing workflows. This particular example makes use of population census data for Killer Whales and abundance data for Chinook Salmon in the north-east Pacific Ocean, which has kindly been provided by Antonio Velez-Espino of Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Please do not rely on the data or results information provided for any actual scientific, conservation or policy use. Mistakes herein (of which there are several) are solely the responsibility of the technical parties working on the technology integration. These include: Cardiff University, University of Manchester and the Natural History Museum, London.
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The fossil history of killer whales dates to the Pliocene epoch, about 5 million years ago. The fossil history is not rich, but some finds link Orcinus orca to its early ancestors. Teeth, partial skulls, jaw bones, and periotic bones (found in a mammal's ear) have been found and identified in many countries of the world, including: Japan, Hungary, Italy, and South Africa.
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Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2013, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
Source | http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Orcinus_orca/ |
Killer whales live in all the oceans between the Arctic and Antarctic ice packs. Given this enormous range and their predatory lifestyle, it is not surprising that they are adaptable, with excellent memory, intelligence, and a capacity for social complexity. They tend to live in pods of fewer than 10 animals, built around a stable core of 2-3 generations of related females - mothers, daughters, sisters, and aunts. This is shown by genetic studies of pods living in the same area. Adult females without calves, and adult males, may help care for and train younger whales to hunt, especially when a reproducing female is rearing more than one offspring. Cooperation extends to hunting, and these animals are known to attack and drown larger whales by swarming them from all sides. Orcas may even beach themselves temporarily to snatch seals, or knock them off ice floes by ramming the ice. Their prey includes larger marine mammals, fish, birds, and cephalopods.
Links:
Mammal Species of the World
Click here for The American Society of Mammalogists species account
Orcas are the top predator in the sea and have an extremely broad diet, including fish, gulls, penguins, turtles, squid and marine mammals, even including large whales such as grey and blue whales (2). They spend their life in stable groups, called pods (2), which hunt co-operatively (6). Long-term studies off Canada have shown that orcas occur as 'transient', 'resident' or 'offshore' populations, which have different hunting styles and social organisation (4). Orcas are extremely active and acrobatic; they are one of the fastest animals in the sea and often breach (clear the water), lobtail (slap the tail flukes on the surface of the water), and spy-hop (bring the head out of the water) (4). Females become sexually mature in their teens and produce a single calf every three years until they reach around 40 years of age (6). After the gestation period of up to 17 months, calves are suckled for about a year (6). Killer whales live to between 50 and 100 years of age (6).
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Rights holder/Author | Copyright Wildscreen 2003-2008 |
Source | http://www.arkive.org/orca/orcinus-orca/ |
Antarctica/Southern Ocean; East Pacific; Eastern Atlantic Ocean; Indo-West Pacific; Western Atlantic Ocean
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Source | http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=137102 |
inshore and offshore
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License |
Source | http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=137102 |
Travels in well-defined social groups (pods), usually of fewer than 40 (averaging less than 10); sometimes forms aggregations exceeding 100. Studies in Puget Sound indicate strong social bonds and stable group structure. Typical pod contains mature females and their young (1-3 juveniles per female) and variable proportions of of males and/or post-reproductive females.
There is no longer a fishery devoted solely to Killer whales, but they are still hunted commercially in some areas. Listed in CITES Appendix II. Protected since 1980 by IWC moratorium against factory ship whaling.
Distribucion en Costa Rica: En todo el Pacífico, incluyendo la isla del Coco, golfos Dulce y Papagayo; también en el Caribe Sur. Principalmente, en áreas costeras.
Distribucion General: Cosmopolita
Aunque hasta ahora se ha considerado una especie ocasional en Costa Rica, en los últimos años se han incrementado los avistamientos, así como el número de individuos por grupo.
cosmopolitan
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License |
Source | http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=137102 |