Orcas
This is a pod of Orcas surfacing simultaneously in the Johnstone Strait off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island. When the dorsal fins appear at the surface they remind me of an unfolding Swiss Army Knife. Each of the animals in this group will be blood relatives. The enormous triangular fins are adult males and the smaller curved fins are females and young animals. The males will wander off to mate with females in other pods, and males from other pods will do the same with this pod. But the males always return to the pod with their mothers. This group are known as "Residents", but despite the name they do wander in search of their prey. They specialise in fish feeding, mainly salmon, and hunt these cooperatively by herding shoals before stunning them by whacking their tails into the shoals. The other "ecotype" look similar but specialise in hunting sea mammals like dolphins and seals. They are known as "Transients" because they wander more widely than the "Residents". The two ecotypes never interbreed and probably have not done so for 30,000 years. Orca are found all around the planet and several other ecotypes occur.
Orcas
This is a pod of Orcas surfacing simultaneously in the Johnstone Strait off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island. When the dorsal fins appear at the surface they remind me of an unfolding Swiss Army Knife. Each of the animals in this group will be blood relatives. The enormous triangular fins are adult males and the smaller curved fins are females and young animals. The males will wander off to mate with females in other pods, and males from other pods will do the same with this pod. But the males always return to the pod with their mothers. This group are known as "Residents", but despite the name they do wander in search of their prey. They specialise in fish feeding, mainly salmon, and hunt these cooperatively by herding shoals before stunning them by whacking their tails into the shoals. The other "ecotype" look similar but specialise in hunting sea mammals like dolphins and seals. They are known as "Transients" because they wander more widely than the "Residents". The two ecotypes never interbreed and probably have not done so for 30,000 years. Orca are found all around the planet and several other ecotypes occur.