by: Ingrid Visser
This animal was originally named Delphinus orca and takes its name from the Latin orcus meaning the "lower world", and literally translating to mean the "demon dolphin". Other names include orque gladiateur which is French and swaardvis which is Dutch, both because of the large swordlike dorsal fin in the males.
The largest of the dolphin family, the orca is one of the easiest cetaceans to identify, with its striking black and white coloration, and on adult males, the large dorsal fin (almost 2m). The body is basically black above (with the exception of an oval white eye patch and a gray "saddle patch") and white underneath. In young calves, these paler areas may be yellow. Orca also have distinctively round pectoral flippers (only two other cetaceans have oval flippers- Heaviside's and Hector's dolphins- both less than two meters long).
Orca average about 8 m for males and 7 m for females.
This species can be found on all African coasts, from inshore waters to more open areas.
Approximately 10% of the time orca are seen in the oceans off the South of Africa, they have been seen in association with birds of various species. They have also been reported to kill seabirds off the Southwestern coast and catch penguins off Namibia. Off Tsitsikamma Costal National Park, in 1979, a man watched five orca kill a dolphin. Off the west coast of South Africa, orca have been reported taking fish off long lines. Killer whales are fully protected around the coasts of South Africa.
Between 1971-1975, the Union Whaling Company, based out of Durban, killed 36 orca in Natal waters. In 1974, two more were killed, and in 1975 four orca were killed. No further records were available to comment on kills in more recent years.
Insufficiently known.
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Research Institute for High Energy Physics
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