This Is Why Orcas Are Called Killer Whales

When it comes to ruling the sea, bigger isn't always better. Surprisingly, some of the largest ocean creatures aren't dangerous at all. The blue whale is the largest animal on the planet, weighing as much as 33 elephants, and all it eats is krill. It's like eating a one-centimeter piece of pizza. And the whale shark, despite its menacing name and 40-foot length, only eats plankton and small fish. So, what does it really take to be at the top of the ocean's food chain? Specialized hunting skills, a ferocious appetite, and few, if any, natural predators. Oh, and sharp teeth don't hurt either. When you think of the top ocean predators, you probably think of sharks. That's wrong. The true ruler of the sea is the killer whale. Surprisingly, they're not whales. They're dolphins. It's hard to believe that a cute animal like a dolphin is ruling the ocean, right? Anyway, we're going to explain this in the next minutes of the video. Killer whales are apex predators, which means they have no natural predators. They hunt in packs, much like wolves, which are also at the top of their food chain. Most often come across resident killer whales, which feed predominantly on salmon, but we occasionally spot transient orcas, which eat everything from fish to seals to sharks and even other whales. Gluttonous thing. If you have any doubt about the killer whale's apex status, consider this. Wildlife watchers off the coast of California witnessed an orca attacking a great white shark. Of course, the orca won. No contest. Interactions between the two typically do not end well for the shark. In 1997, the first recorded interaction between a great white and orca was documented. Two orcas killed a great white shark and ate its liver. Removing the liver and leaving the rest of the body is quite consistent behavior for orcas. In 2017, five great whites washed ashore in South Africa with similar signs. The livers had been removed with incredible precision, and orcas are believed the most likely culprit. Oh, it's absolutely terrifying. Orcas are highly intelligent animals and work in groups when they hunt. Their very presence, even when brief, can have a huge impact on the surrounding ecosystem. When the great white sharks flee and do not hunt in an area for up to a year, the numbers of their prey do not decline as they normally would, which affects other areas of the ecosystem in turn. It seems that orca whales can be considered the true apex predator of the ocean now. Why are orcas called killer whales? Are they swimming in the ocean with guns and killing everyone? No. Let's explain why. Dolphins and whales are closely related. Orcas were given the name killer whale by ancient sailors' observations of groups of orcas hunting and preying on larger whale species. They called orcas assassina baenas or whale killer, a term that was eventually flipped around to the easier killer whale. Their Latin name, Orcinus orca, also reflects this observation of orcas feeding on large whales. Orcinus means, of the kingdom of the dead, and orca refers to a kind of whale. We know that orcas are top predators, yes, but not the vicious whale killer that the ancient mariners thought them to be. If you could give orcas another name, what would you call them? Let me know in the comments below. Killer whales look cute and have a friendlier image than great white sharks, perhaps because of their respective portrayals in movies. Jaws 2 even begins with the beached carcass of a half-eaten orca. We mentioned a lot about the great white sharks, so let's take a look at them too. They can smell a single drop of blood floating in 10 billion drops of water. They can detect movement from as far away as 820 feet. And with powerful streamlined bodies and razor-sharp teeth, great white sharks are as scary as it gets. But don't worry, they generally don't eat people, and most attacks on humans aren't fatal anyway. Nevertheless, I recommend you to be sure that you're not bleeding if you're gonna get in the ocean. Great white sharks prefer to gobble up sea lions, seals, dolphins, small-toothed whales, sea turtles, seabirds, and even the rotting flesh of dead animals. They can reach speeds of 43 miles, 69 kilometers per hour, which allows them to surprise their prey and subdue it with a single bite. Great white sharks can even leave the water completely, breaching like whales when attacking prey from underneath. Let's take a look at another animal that's higher up in the food chain. Polar bears. Polar bears are land mammals. Is it hard to open your eyes in the water, buddy? They spend much of their life at sea. They're incredibly strong swimmers who have been spotted hundreds of miles from land. Polar bears mainly eat seals, but also munch on belugas, narwhal, bowhead whales, walrus, and sometimes fish. Look at that big bodies. They need to be filled up, so in summer when the sea ice melts and they don't have easy access to marine prey, they may scavenge carcasses or search for bird eggs and berries. Seals are their preferred meal, though, and polar bears will wait for days for a seal to surface at a breathing hole. When the seal finally pops up for air, the polar bear swipes at it with its mighty paw and crushes it with a single bite from its powerful jaws. Polar bears are apex predators in the Arctic, but they do occasionally back down from a fight with a walrus. Another predator after the polar bears, leopard seals. Leopard seals are quite cute, until they open their mouths. Their jaws are wide and powerful and are lined with long, razor-sharp teeth. They have no trouble ripping apart penguins and seal pups, their favorite meals. Leopard seals are one of the Antarctic's most ferocious hunters. Take their penguin-eating habits, for example. After they grab a penguin, they thrash the bird back and forth until the skin peels away. Then, they consume the carcass. So, they're not as cute as they seem. Unlike, they're quite scary. If you see one of it, don't try to pet it. Topping out at 10 feet and weighing up to a ton, leopard seals have a virtually insatiable appetite and spend the majority of their time searching for prey. They'll eat almost anything, including fish, squid, crustaceans, and even krill. One leopard seal captured near Sydney had eaten a full-grown platypus. Lastly, there is one more animal that should not be forgotten in this list. Sea lions. Aww, look at that cuteness. But this cuteness has three main predators to be careful of. They include killer whales, sharks, and humans. Of course, humans pose the biggest threat to them both in the water and on land than those other types of predators. While we don't know too much about the interactions with sea lions and killer whales or sharks, we definitely know plenty about their interactions with humans. Many researchers believe that the sea lion can easily swim faster than killer whales and sharks. Do you see this speed? It's like they're the flash of the seas. However, it is often the element of surprise that results in them being prey for these predators. Also, the very young or those that are sick won't be able to move as fast, so they're easier for these predators to capture. Sea lions can often sense when killer whales or sharks are close by. Their biggest defense to this is to get to the edge of the water and on to land. Sometimes, these predators can jump up and still capture them though if they don't move far enough away from the edge of the water. See you in the next video!