The scientific name for an orca is OrcinusOrca.

Orcas belong to the mammal group called cetaceans.Cetacean is a Latin word that means "whale".

In the past orcas were thought of as verydangerous to humans. Americans once called them "sea wolves" and inGermany "Mordwal" means "death whale". In the 1960's orcas started tobe put into oceanariums. When people had a chance to see how smartand playful orcas are, they realized that they weren't somean.

Whales can be divided into two groups: toothedwhales and baleen whales. Orcas are toothed whales.

Orcas are not fish! They are mammals, which meansthat they breathe air, nurse their young, and are warmblooded.

A male orca is a bull. A female orca is called acow. The babies are called calves.

An orca can't smile because the blubber in itshead keeps its face muscles from reaching the surface.

Orcas can't breath while they are under the water.It must come up to the surface to take a breath.

When a whale has held its breath underwater for along time the air in its lungs gets warm. When it surfaces and blowsthis warm air into the cold ocean air it causes a visible fog to beblown up into a spout.

The "blow", or breath, that comes out of an orcasmells like bad fish and old oil. This is because it containsdroplets from the whale's sinuses and lungs. It leaves a greasy filmon anything it touches.

Whales can hold their breath longer than landmammals because of a chemical called myoglobin. All mammals havemyoglobin which carries oxygen in their bodies. Most whales have upto nine times the amount of myoglobin that land mammals do.

All whales, including orcas have lice. Whale liceare small crustaceans that attach themselves to the eyes, flippers,and throat grooves of a whale.

Did you know that killer whales eat other whales?In 1977 a group of killer whales attacked a blue whale and ateit.

Thousands of years ago orcas may have walked onland. They have bone structures that are very much like four legs.Their back leg bones are small and don't show on the outside of theorca. The front leg bones are located in their flippers.

An orca can swim at 30 miles (48 km) perhour.

Phony Killer

A false killer whale has a fairly large dorsal finand is sometimes mistaken for a killer whale. But is most definitelyis not a killer whale . A false killer whale doesn't have whitepatches, is not black, and is much smaller. It is 20' and 3,000pounds. While a killer whale can grow more than 31' and weigh over 8tons.

Mission Rescue Whale

One high tide in August of 1994 a pod of 7 orcas chased a schoolof salmon into Barrens Lake in Alaska. But when the pod tried to getout the tide was to low, and when the tide was high they got stuck inseaweed. The whales could find no way out..

Later a fisher found the pod. One of the whales had shown up deadon the beach. The rest had eaten all the fish and if stayed there tolong would starve. Time was critical. So a group of people decided toattempt an acoustic rescue. That is were you bang on pipes underwater. The sound waves would hopefully lead the orcas to freedom. Itworked the orcas were free!! The crowd cheered!!