| Facts
About Gray Whales and Orcas |
| Gray
Whales |
Orcas
(transient types) |
This
gray whale is "showing off" its
baleen plates! Made of keratin (like our fingernails),
baleen filters and traps food. |
Photo:
Michael Smith |
Orcas
have tall dorsal fins that can grow to 5 feet! The fins release
extra heat that builds up as orcas swim.
An orca's streamlined body enables it to swim easily. When needed,
an orca can swim up to 30 miles an hour for short spurts!
|
Size:
35-50 feet long
Weight: 28-40 tons
|
Size:
23-33 feet long
Weight: 4-9
tons
|
|
Eating
Habits
-
Feed
mainly in Arctic summer grounds on small bottom-dwelling
animals
called amphipods.
-
Get
food by rolling on their sides along the sea floor and
swimming
slowly as they scrape mouthfuls of sediment off the sea floor.
-
Take
in mouthfuls of water and sediment, then push it with
their tongues through
baleen to trap food and filter out water. Folds in their
throats expand, letting them gulp up to a ton of food a
day!
|
Eating
Habits
- Prey
on seals, porpoises, gray whales, and other large sea mammals
year-round. (Other types of orcas eat fish.)
- Hunt
together in small packs.
- Cooperate,
communicate, and use complex strategies to take down large animals
and share the food.
- Do
not attack humans or other non-food creatures.
|
|
Young
- Mothers
are very protective of their young.
- Calves
have an instinct to feed. They experiment, explore, and put
everything in their mouths!
- A
newborn gray whale is 15 feet long and weighs from 1500 to
2000
pounds.
|
Young
- Mothers
are very protective of their young.
- Mothers
teach calves to hunt.
- A
newborn orca is 7 to 8 1/2 feet long and weighs about 390 pounds.
|
|
Body
Parts/Senses
- A
huge mouth has a 5-foot tongue weighing up to 3,000 pounds.
The baleen (see photo) filters and traps food.
- Can
make sounds, but experts have much to learn about
gray whales' use of sound.
- Can
mainly hear low-pitched sounds.
- Have
good vision, but the eyes are far apart, so they can't see what's
directly in front of them.
- Giant
body helps a gray whale generate and hold heat — especially
in cold northern feeding grounds. Large tails help with swimming
and harming attackers.
- Dig
Deeper >>
|
Body
Parts/Senses
- Have
46 to 50 cone-shaped teeth. The upper and lower teeth interlock,
which aids in gripping and tearing.
- Use
special sense of ecolocation (SONAR) to get a picture of the
size and location of objects.
- Can
make and hear many different sounds. But when hunting, they
remain quiet.
- Have
excellent vision in and out of water.
- Streamlined
body makes swimming easy. (When needed, an orca can swim up
to 30 miles an hour for short spurts!)
|
|
Main
Threats
- Pollution
from human-made chemicals and shipping waste.
- Collisions
with large ships.
- Entanglement
in fishing gear.
- Industrial
development (e.g., oil fields) near winter nurseries and summer
feeding areas.
- Habitat
damage from development in beach areas.
- Learn
more.
|
Main
Threats
- Human-made
chemicals (e.g., PCBs). West Coast orcas are the most contaminated
sea animals in the world! Pollutants build up in their bodies
because orcas are at the top of the food chain. Mothers also
pass pollutants to babies through their milk
- Entanglement
in fishing gear.
- Noise
disturbance from shipping (can interfere with communication).
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Gray Whale
