Orca
Orcinus orca
— Where the name comes from
From the Latin orca, a large cetacean, joined to Orcinus: “belonging to Orcus”, the Roman god of the underworld and of death. The scientific name says, literally, “orca of the realm of the dead”. The English killer whale comes of an inversion: Basque whalers called it the whale killer, and the translation swapped prey and predator.
— Facts
- Group
- Mammals · Mammalia
- Order
- Cetaceans
- Habitat
- Every ocean, from the poles to the tropics
- Range
- Cosmopolitan; most abundant in cold, productive waters
- Size
- 6–8 m, up to 6 tonnes for the male
- Diet
- Carnivore — fish, seals, other cetaceans, depending on the population
- Lifespan
- 50–80 years for females
— Characteristics
- 01
It is the largest of the dolphins, not a whale: it belongs to the family Delphinidae.
- 02
Lives in matrilineal family groups that stay together for life.
- 03
Every population has its own dialect of calls and hunting techniques, passed on as culture.
— What sets it apart
Female orcas live for decades after fertility ends: they are, with humans and a handful of other species, among the very few animals that go through menopause. The grandmother leading the pod is a living memory: in lean times it is she who guides the group to the fishing grounds she has learnt over fifty years. When she dies, the mortality of her sons and grandsons rises sharply.
