{"id":81,"date":"2019-03-12T23:10:32","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T23:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/n3-killerwhale\/"},"modified":"2020-12-08T20:48:35","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T20:48:35","slug":"n3-killerwhale","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/n3-killerwhale\/","title":{"rendered":"Killer Whales"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
by Jessie McGrath
\n<\/font><\/div>\n

Killer
\nWhales<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

The killer whale is not one
\nof the largest marine species, but it is the largest predatory mammal. The
\nmale killer whale is typically larger than the female, with a length 5.8
\n-6.7 meters and weighing between 1,361 and 3,628 kg. The largest male found
\nwas 9.8 meters and weighed 10000 kg. The largest female ever recorded was
\n8.5 meters and weighed 7,500 kg.<\/font><\/p>\n

The color of a killer whale
\nis just a plain black and white. But this arrangement of color strengthens
\ntheir ability to hunt. The black top of the killer whale blends in with
\nthe murky depths of the ocean when viewed from above. When viewed from below,
\nthe white underside blends in with the tight from above. Their prey has
\na hard time seeing the whales because of their color contrast against the
\nenvironment.<\/font><\/p>\n

The tail of a whale is called
\na fluke. The fluke has no bones or cartilage so is often curved. The largest
\nfluke size recorded of a killer whale was 2.7 meters long from tip to tip.<\/font><\/p>\n

Killer whale hearing
\nis very developed, The average hearing range for a human is a low 0.2 to
\n17 kHz, while the killer whale has a hearing range of 0.5 to 125 kHz. The
\nkiller whale’s ears are located just behind the eyes and can receive sound
\nthrough the soft tissue and bone around the ear, but most of the time they
\nreceive sound through their lower jaw. (As shown in the following picture.)<\/font><\/p>\n



\n

\n <\/font><\/p>\n



\nHigh frequency in the range of 50 kHz and above appears to be received effectively
\nby the lower jaw. The fat filled lower jawbone conducts sound waves through
\nthe jawbone into the middle ear, the inner ear and then to the hearing centers
\nin the brain through the auditory nerve.<\/font><\/p>\n

Killer whales also have the
\nability of echolocation which enables them to locate and discriminate objects
\nby projecting high frequency sound waves and listening for echoes. The sound
\nthey project is a high clicking sound. Each click lasts one millisecond.
\nThe range of the clicks arc mostly between 10 and 80 kHz. A click range
\non average is about 26 kHz. The click trains do not come out of their mouths,
\nhowever, but out of their melon, which is a rounded region on a killer whale’s
\nforehead. The sound waves travel through the water at a speed of about 1.5km\/sec
\n(0.9m\/see.), which is four-and-one-half times as fast as sound travels through
\nthe air. All in all, echolocation allows killer whales to determine the
\nsize, shape, speed, distance, direction and even some of the internal structure
\nof objects in the water.

\n

\nKiller whales have very good eyesight, as well, in and out of the water.
\nA killer whale’s eyes are on each side of the head right above the white
\n“eyespots”. Although many people think their eyes are in those
\nspots, they are actually above them. This is because prey animals may try
\nto injure their eyes in order to escape, but the obvious false eyespot may
\ndraw attention away from the real eyes.<\/font><\/p>\n

Killer whales do not have a
\nsense of smell. Being air-breathing animals that spend a majority of their
\ntime under water, a sense of smell would go largely unused.<\/font><\/p>\n

Next to humans, killer whales
\nare the most widely distributed largemammal in the world. Killer whales
\ninhabit all of the oceans in the world. But they are most numerous in the
\nArctic and other areas of cold water. They are scattered along the shores
\nof Washington, Oregon, California, Baja California, and along the eastern
\ncoast of the United States. Although killer whales prefer cold water they
\nalso have been sighted in warm water, such as Hawaii, Australia, the Galapagos
\nIslands, the Bahamas, and the Gulf of Mexico. Such sightings are more infrequent
\nbut they to do happen. Killer whales have also been seen in fresh water
\nrivers. One even traveled 177 km (110 miles) up the Columbia River to eat
\nfish.<\/font><\/p>\n

Killer whales mainly migrate
\nby influence of other things. In eastern Canada killer whale movements are
\noften a response to seal and rorqual whale migrations, while the northeastern
\nAtlantic killer whales seem to follow herring. In the Bering, Chukchi and
\nBeaufort seas, killer whales make seasonal migrations in response to the
\nadvance and retreat of the ice pack.<\/font><\/p>\n

Killer whales are not considered
\nan endangered species although their population is unknown. Because of their
\nwide distribution it is very difficult to know the exact number but some
\nspecific killer whale populations have been examined. The southeastern population
\nis about 250. The populations around Prince William Sound, western Alaska,
\nthe Bering Sea and British Columbia\/Puget Sound are believed to be around
\n300 for each area. Populations in the Antarctic range are estimated at 70,000-180,000.
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

The killer whale is a very
\ninteresting and magnificent animal. I enjoyed learning about them very much
\nand I hope my paper has been educational.<\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Jessie McGrath Killer Whales The killer whale is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template_8.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/81"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9096,"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/81\/revisions\/9096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.forsea.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}