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Orcinus orca
– Lower Risk Conservation Dependent
Taxonomy
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Kingdom:
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ANIMALIA
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Phylum:
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CHORDATA
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Class:
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MAMMALIA
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Order:
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CETACEA
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Family:
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DELPHINIDAE
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Scientific Name:
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Orcinus orca
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Species Authority:
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(Linnaeus, 1758)
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Common Name/s:
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| English | — | KILLER WHALE, ORCA |
| French | — | EPAULARD, ORQUE |
| Spanish | — | ESPADARTE, ORCA |
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Assessment Information
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Red List Category & Criteria:
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LR/cd ver 2.3 (1994)
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Year Assessed:
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1996
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Annotations:
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Needs updating
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Assessor/s:
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Cetacean Specialist Group
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Justification:
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Extract from Reeves et al. (2003, pp. 43): "The Killer Whale has a cosmopolitan distribution, but there is much geographical variation in its morphology, behavior, and ecology (Dahlheim and Heyning 1999). Further research may justify recognition of more than one species (Rice 1998, Baird 2000). Although Killer Whales are fairly abundant and widespread on a global scale, regional poulations can be small and highly specialized, and therefore vulnerable to over-exploitation and habitat deterioration. Killer Whales are large enough to represent good value for effort in whaling operations; they are available in many coastal areas; and their predatory habits mean that "predator control" is an added incentive for killing them (even though there is no evidence that such culling actually enhances fish stocks). Hunting of Killer Whales is not conducted on a large scale at present, but considerable numbers were killed until the early 1980s in the North Atlantic by Norwegian whalers, in the western North Pacific by Japanese whalers, and in the Antarctic by the Soviet whaling fleet. Small numbers are still killed in coastal whaling operations in Japan, Indonesia, the Lesser Antilles, and Greenland. Their place at the top of marine food webs means that Killer Whales come into conflict with humans in unique ways. One recent example comes from the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific, where Killer Whale predation has been proposed as a major factor in the rapid decline of Sea Otters. According to this hypothesis, human overfishing of forage fishes reduced the carrying capacity for seals and sea lions, the traditional prey of certain pods of killer whales, forcing the whales to increase their predation on otters. With declines in otter densities, sea urchin populations were released from predation, allowing them to increase and cause deforestation of near-shore kelp beds (Estes et al. 1998). Another well-established and growing concern is depredation by Killer Whales (and other species such as False Killer Whales and Sperm Whales) on commercial longlines. Such interactions result in direct retaliation by fishermen and calls for organized control measures.
Their popularity as display animals creates a strong demand for live Killer whales to be brought into captivity. However, few have been removed from the wild in recent years. Anti-captivity campaigns, along with limited success at captive breeding, have reduced the pressure on wild populations to supply oceanaria. One inshore population of Killer Whales in British Columbia and Washington has declined in recent years (Ford et al. 2000), prompting concern about the exceptionally high levels of contaminants found in their tissues (Ross et al. 2000) and the possibility that they are suffering from the depletion of local salmon stocks (their preferred prey) or the disturbance caused by ship and boat traffic (Baird 2000)."
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History:
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| 1994 | - | Insufficiently Known (Groombridge 1994) |
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Geographic Range
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Countries:
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Native:
Algeria; Antarctica; Argentina; Australia; Bahamas; Brazil; Canada (Newfoundland); Chile; Comoros; Costa Rica; Cuba; Côte d'Ivoire; Denmark; Ecuador (Galápagos); Falkland Islands (Malvinas); Faroe Islands; France; French Southern Territories (Kerguelen); Germany; Greenland; Guam; Guatemala; Guinea; Heard Island and McDonald Islands; Honduras; Iceland; India; Indonesia; Ireland; Italy; Jamaica; Japan; Kenya; Korea, Democratic People's Republic of; Korea, Republic of; Madagascar; Malaysia; Mauritania; Mexico; Morocco; Mozambique; Namibia; New Zealand; Nicaragua; Norway; Panama; Papua New Guinea; Peru; Russian Federation; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Senegal; Seychelles; South Africa; South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; Spain; Sri Lanka; Taiwan, Province of China; Tanzania, United Republic of; Tunisia; United Kingdom; United States (Aleutian Is., Hawaiian Is.); Uruguay; Viet Nam; Western Sahara
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FAO Marine Fishing Areas:
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Native:
Arctic Sea; Atlantic-Antarctic; Atlantic-eastern central; Atlantic-northeast; Atlantic-northwest; Atlantic-southeast; Atlantic-southwest; Atlantic-western central; Indian Ocean-Antarctic; Indian Ocean-eastern; Indian Ocean-western; Mediterranean and Black Sea; Pacific-Antarctic; Pacific-eastern central; Pacific-northeast; Pacific-northwest; Pacific-southeast; Pacific-southwest; Pacific-western central
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Habitat and Ecology
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