The sea is an inexhaustible source of secrets and mysteries, many of which disturb even venerable scholars. But there are simple animal lovers who are haunted by much simpler problems. For example, a killer whale. Is it a whale or a dolphin? Let's answer this question!
To begin with, the animal is one of the aquatic mammals, part of the dolphin family. It belongs to the genus of killer whales and is its only representative. The closest relatives were found only in the Paleocene sediments of Italian Tuscany.
Who is the killer whale? Is it a whale or a dolphin? The average person will probably answer this question incorrectly, since the wrong name of this animal is widespread in society.
We are talking about the nickname "killer whale", which he is awarded in special literature and on the pages of the yellow press. Until now, the Latin name of the mammal has not been approved. Today the name Orca Gray, 1846 is accepted.
This is a predatory dolphin, not a whale! The male can grow up to ten meters in length, weigh about eight tons, and the dorsal fin can reach one and a half meters. Females are about half the size.
The pectoral fins are wide and rounded, while in other dolphins they are pointed and narrow. It was because of this symptom that scientists could not decide for a long time which animals the killer whale should be assigned to: is it a whale or a dolphin?
This peculiar dolphin has a massive and heavy head, in the mouth of which teeth are located 10-13 cm long. They are specifically designed to attack even large prey. By the way, at the time of the attack, the killer whale can reach speeds of up to 60 km / h.
Contrary to popular belief, the color of this mammal is purely individual, very different in different individuals. As a rule, the back is black and the belly is white. A distinctive sign - there are white spots above the eyes. Completely white specimens are not so rare.
The “whale” whale is widespread (the photo of which is in the article) widely, occurring in almost all seas. It keeps near the coast, preferring not to swim into the open sea beyond 800 km. There are no killer whales in the Black Sea and the Laptev Sea. In our country, it can be found in the area of the Commanders and the Kuril Islands.
Each population has such a narrow food specialization that quite ignorant people are often attributed to animals a variety of atrocities. So, you can meet the question of who the killer whale is: a whale or a shark?
This is due to the fact that some populations can quietly hunt herring all their lives, while others attack exclusively seals. It is no wonder to suspect that the closest relatives of killer whales are sea shark predators! However, they also attack the latter, and this often happens.
Such oddities, expressed in an incredible variety of diets, were clarified by Canadian scientists. They found out that all killer whales are divided into two types: “residents” and transit individuals. The first type constantly lives within the same water area, hunting fish and marine mollusks. They rarely attack big game.
But transit individuals - these are the very “killer whales”. They constantly wander as they follow flocks of dolphins, whales, walruses and seals. They love to hunt penguins, swarms of them knocking them off the ice.
Now the question of who such a killer whale (is it a whale or a dolphin) should not cause you to think!
