Relevant bibliographies by topics / Killer whales (Orcinus orca)

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Academic literature on the topic 'Killer whales (Orcinus orca)'

Author: Grafiati
Published: 4 June 2021
Last updated: 15 February 2022

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Journal articles on the topic "Killer whales (Orcinus orca)"

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Silber, Gregory K., Michael W. Newcomer, and Héctor Pérez-Cortés M. "Killer whales (Orcinus orca) attack and kill a Bryde's whale (Balaenoptera edeni)." Canadian Journal of Zoology 68, no. 7 (July 1, 1990): 1603–6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z90-238.

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On 3 May 1988, we observed a group of killer whales that pursued, killed, and partially consumed a Bryde's whale in the northern Gulf of California, Mexico (31°01′N, 114°15′W). The attack was observed from 06:54 to 08:53 while circling in a single-engine aircraft at an altitude of 160 m. The group comprised about 15 killer whales, including two adult males and at least two calves. Females and (or) subadult males pressed the attack most intently. The killer whales tore skin and blubber from the right flank of the Bryde's whale, and on 11 occasions the killer whales swam onto the head or back of the Bryde's whale, which hindered its breathing. The respiration intervals of the Bryde's whale were short and irregular, and blow rates differed significantly from those of undisturbed Bryde's whales. Fatiguing the whale may have facilitated an easier kill by asphyxiation. After the death of the Bryde's whale, the two adult male killer whales surfaced slowly about 200–300 m away from the remainder of the group, which presumably fed on the submerged Bryde's whale carcass. Two days later, the drifting Bryde's whale carcass was located. A large wound was visible on the abdomen, and sections of the lower jaw had been removed. Like those of canids and some felids that hunt cooperatively when preying on ungulates, attacks by Orcinus orca exhibit coordination of activities and efficiency in dispatching prey.
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Dunn, Charlotte, and Diane Claridge. "Killer whale (Orcinus orca) occurrence and predation in the Bahamas." Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 94, no. 6 (August 6, 2013): 1305–9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0025315413000908.

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Killer whales (Orcinus orca) have a cosmopolitan distribution, yet little is known about populations that inhabit tropical waters. We compiled 34 sightings of killer whales in the Bahamas, recorded from 1913 to 2011. Group sizes were generally small (mean = 4.2, range = 1–12, SD = 2.6). Thirteen sightings were documented with photographs and/or video of sufficient quality to allow individual photo-identification analysis. Of the 45 whales photographed, 14 unique individual killer whales were identified, eight of which were re-sighted between two and nine times. An adult female (Oo6) and a now-adult male (Oo4), were first seen together in 1995, and have been re-sighted together eight times over a 16-yr period. To date, killer whales in the Bahamas have only been observed preying on marine mammals, including Atlantic spotted dolphin (Stenella frontalis), Fraser's dolphin (Lagenodelphis hosei), pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps) and dwarf sperm whale (Kogia sima), all of which are previously unrecorded prey species for Orcinus orca.
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Whitehead, Hal, and Randall Reeves. "Killer whales and whaling: the scavenging hypothesis." Biology Letters 1, no. 4 (July 26, 2005): 415–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2005.0348.

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Killer whales ( Orcinus orca ) frequently scavenged from the carcasses produced by whalers. This practice became especially prominent with large-scale mechanical whaling in the twentieth century, which provided temporally and spatially clustered floating carcasses associated with loud acoustic signals. The carcasses were often of species of large whale preferred by killer whales but that normally sink beyond their diving range. In the middle years of the twentieth century floating whaled carcasses were much more abundant than those resulting from natural mortality of whales, and we propose that scavenging killer whales multiplied through diet shifts and reproduction. During the 1970s the numbers of available carcasses fell dramatically with the cessation of most whaling (in contrast to a reasonably stable abundance of living whales), and the scavenging killer whales needed an alternative source of nutrition. Diet shifts may have triggered declines in other prey species, potentially affecting ecosystems, as well as increasing direct predation on living whales.
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Hairr, John. "Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) Off the North Carolina Coast 1709–2011." Journal of North Carolina Academy of Science 128, no. 2 (July 1, 2012): 39–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.7572/2167-5880-128.2.39.

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Abstract Killer whales, Orcinus orca, were first reported off North Carolina by naturalist John Lawson in 1709, and during the 20th century were documented from North Carolina eight times in the scientific and popular literature. The most recent confirmed sighting of killer whales off North Carolina was in the spring of 2011. There have been no reports of killer whale deaths from North Carolina. There has been only one killer whale stranded along the North Carolina coast, with the animal being alive when it was returned to the sea. All sightings have been in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, none on the west side of the Outer Banks in the waters of Pamlico or Currituck sounds. Only three confirmed reports are from nearshore waters, while the rest were spotted more than 20 km offshore. Orcas are most frequently reported from the waters off the Outer Banks from Cape Lookout north to the Virginia border. A 200 yr gap exists in the historical record of killer whales from North Carolina.
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Xu, Jinshan, Z. Daniel Deng, Thomas J. Carlson, and Brian Moore. "Target Strength of Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca): Measurement and Modeling." Marine Technology Society Journal 46, no. 2 (March 1, 2012): 74–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.4031/mtsj.46.2.2.

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AbstractA major criterion for permitting the deployment of tidal turbines in Washington State’s Puget Sound is management of risk of injury to killer whales from collision with moving turbine blades. An active monitoring system is being proposed to detect and track killer whales within proximity of turbines and alert turbine operators of their presence and location to permit temporary turbine shutdown when the risk of collision is high. Knowledge of the target strength (TS) of killer whales is critical to the design and application of active acoustic monitoring systems. In 1996, a study of the TS directivity of a 2.2-m-long bottlenose dolphin at an insonifying frequency of 67 kHz was performed. Noting that killer whales, which are dolphins, are morphologically similar to bottlenose dolphins and then assuming allometry, we estimated the relative broadside and tail aspect TS of a 7.5-m-long adult killer whale at an insonifying frequency of 67 kHz to be −8 and −28 dB, respectively. We used a three-layer model for plane wave reflection of sound at 200 kHz from the lung of killer whales to estimate their TS. We assessed the accuracy of our killer whale TS estimates by comparing them with TS estimates of free swimming killer whales obtained using a split-beam active acoustic system operating at 200 kHz. The killer whale TS estimates based on the preliminary model were in good agreement with those obtained for free swimming killer whales.
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Stevens, Tracy A., Deborah A. Duffield, Edward D. Asper, K. Gilbey Hewlett, Al Bolz, Laurie J. Gage, and Gregory D. Bossart. "Preliminary findings of restriction fragment differences in mitochondrial DNA among killer whales (Orcinus orca)." Canadian Journal of Zoology 67, no. 10 (October 1, 1989): 2592–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z89-365.

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A preliminary assessment of mitochondrial DNA restriction patterns in the killer whale (Orcinus orca) was conducted using 10 captive North Atlantic killer whales from the southeastern coast of Iceland, a captive-born offspring of one of these whales, and 9 North Pacific killer whales. No restriction pattern variation was seen among these whales, using the enzymes BamH I, Bgl II, Hinf I, Kpn I, or Pvu II. Restriction pattern variation was found using the enzyme Hae III. This restriction endonuclease distinguished the North Atlantic killer whales (type 1) from the North Pacific killer whales. The North Pacific killer whales were further differentiated into two groups: those originating from the "resident" communities of the Vancouver Island region (type 2), and those from the "transient" community of Vancouver Island, as well as those stranded along the Oregon coast (type 3). The observed Hae III restriction pattern differences suggest that mitochondrial DNA analysis will be a valuable technique for investigating regional and local distributions of maternal lineages among killer whale pods, especially in the North Pacific.
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LaMere, Sarah A., Judy A. St. Leger, Mark D. Schrenzel, Simon J. Anthony, Bruce A. Rideout, and Daniel R. Salomon. "Molecular Characterization of a Novel Gammaretrovirus in Killer Whales (Orcinus orca)." Journal of Virology 83, no. 24 (October 7, 2009): 12956–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/jvi.01354-09.

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ABSTRACT There are currently no published data documenting the presence of retroviruses in cetaceans, though the occurrences of cancers and immunodeficiency states suggest the potential. We examined tissues from adult killer whales and detected a novel gammaretrovirus by degenerate PCR. Reverse transcription-PCR also demonstrated tissue and serum expression of retroviral mRNA. The full-length sequence of the provirus was obtained by PCR, and a TaqMan-based copy number assay did not demonstrate evidence of productive infection. PCR on blood samples from 11 healthy captive killer whales and tissues from 3 free-ranging animals detected the proviral DNA in all tissues examined from all animals. A survey of multiple cetacean species by PCR for gag, pol, and env sequences showed homologs of this virus in the DNA of eight species of delphinids, pygmy and dwarf sperm whales, and harbor porpoises, but not in beluga or fin whales. Analysis of the bottlenose dolphin genome revealed two full-length proviral sequences with 97.4% and 96.9% nucleotide identity to the killer whale gammaretrovirus. The results of single-cell PCR on killer whale sperm and Southern blotting are also consistent with the conclusion that the provirus is endogenous. We suggest that this gammaretrovirus entered the delphinoid ancestor's genome before the divergence of modern dolphins or that an exogenous variant existed following divergence that was ultimately endogenized. However, the transcriptional activity demonstrated in tissues and the nearly intact viral genome suggest a more recent integration into the killer whale genome, favoring the latter hypothesis. The proposed name for this retrovirus is killer whale endogenous retrovirus.
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Goley, P. Dawn, and Janice M. Straley. "Attack on gray whales (Eschrichtius robustus) in Monterey Bay, California, by killer whales (Orcinus orca) previously identified in Glacier Bay, Alaska." Canadian Journal of Zoology 72, no. 8 (August 1, 1994): 1528–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z94-202.

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A group of at least 17 killer whales (Orcinus orca) were observed attacking a gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) mother and calf on 2 May 1992 in Monterey Bay, California, U.S.A. (36°47.90′N, 122°00.17′W). Small groups of killer whales took turns harassing the gray whales and prevented them from leaving the area. Three of the killer whales participating in this attack previously had been photographed on 6 August 1989 in Glacier Bay, Alaska, U.S.A. (58°41′N, 136°04′W). This linear distance nearly doubles the maximum range of movement previously reported for killer whales.
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BALLARD, GRANT, and DAVID G. AINLEY. "Killer whale harrassment of Adélie penguins at Ross Island." Antarctic Science 17, no. 3 (August 17, 2005): 385–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0954102005002828.

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On innumerable occasions, Adélie (Pygoscelis adeliae) and emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) have been observed in close proximity to killer whales (Orcinus orca), with no whale-penguin interactions reported. On the other hand, killer whales reportedly harass and eat seabirds on occasion (Walker 1968: p. 1122, Stacey et al. 1990, Williams et al. 1990). Killer whales are known to prey on young king penguins (A. patagonica) as they are fledging (Guinet 1992, Guinet & Bouvier 1995) and occasionally take emperor penguins (Mikhalev et al. 1981). Thomas et al. (1981) report killer whales chasing Adélies. Here we report the only observations of Adélie-killer whale interactions observed in nine field seasons on Ross Island.
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Bain, David E., Birgit Kriete, and Marilyn E. Dahlheim. "Hearing abilities of killer whales (Orcinus orca)." Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 94, no. 3 (September 1993): 1829. http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.407766.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic "Killer whales (Orcinus orca)"

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Marsh, Jennifer Anne. "Social behavior and ecology of "southern resident" killer whales (Orcinus orca) /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/9081.

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Samarra, Filipa Isabel Pereira. "Functional design and use of acoustic signals produced by killer whales (Orcinus orca)." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/2564.

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This study aimed to investigate possible functions of the sounds produced by herring-eating killer whales in the Northeast Atlantic. In this study, I investigated the whistle repertoire of killer whales, which had previously only been studied in British Columbia, where it appeared to be restricted to the audible range. However, I show that high frequency whistles (> 17 kHz) were detected in Northeast Atlantic populations but not in Northeast Pacific populations. These results indicated substantial intraspecific variation in whistle production in killer whales. Little variation was observed in high frequency whistles recorded from three different sites in the Northeast Atlantic, suggesting this signal has a similar function across locations. The estimated active space of high frequency whistles and burst-pulse calls suggested that these are short-range signals used for within-group communication. Source levels of burst-pulse calls were lower than what was previously described in British Columbia, which possibly reflected the fact that these sounds do not need to propagate far because distances between group members are generally short. Calls, high frequency whistles and herding calls produced at different depths did not appear to suffer effects due to increased pressure, such as changing frequency or duration characteristics. Feeding appeared to take place below 10 m of depth, as suggested by the localisation of depth of production of feeding-related sounds. These depths were consistent with those at which tailslaps were produced in Dtags attached to individual whales. Feeding periods were characterised by deep diving, increased sound production and highly non-directional movement. These findings suggested that killer whales in a herring spawning ground use a feeding strategy different from carousel feeding used in herring overwintering grounds. These findings showed that Northeast Atlantic killer whales have a different sound repertoire to other populations, and suggested that they may employ different feeding strategies depending on prey behaviour.
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Stevens, Tracy Alison. "Analysis of mitochondrial DNA restriction fragment patterns in killer whales, Orcinus orca." PDXScholar, 1989. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/3928.

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The mitochondrial DNA restriction fragment patterns of killer whales (Orcinus orca) were investigated in order to determine the level of genetic differentiation that exists between killer whales from various geographic locations. Twenty one killer whales were examined, seventeen of which were captive killer whales that originated from the North Atlantic and Northeast Pacific Oceans. Two were captive-born animals and two were killer whales that stranded along the Northeast Pacific coast. DNA was extracted from blood and/or tissue samples, cleaved with a variety of restriction endonucleases and the DNA fragments were separated by horizontal agarose gel electrophoresis. The DNA was then transferred to nylon membranes and the killer whale mitochondrial DNA was visualized by hybridization to the complete mitochondrial DNA genome of Commerson's dolphin (Cephalorhynchus commersonii). The resultant restriction fragment patterns were analyzed to determine whether mitochondrial DNA variation was present between killer whales from different geographic regions or between communities and pods of killer whales from the same geographic location.
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Miller, Patrick J. O. "Maintaining contact : design and use of acoustic signals in killer whales, Orcinus orca /." Online version, 2000. http://hdl.handle.net/1912/1765.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Joint Program in Biological Oceanography (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Biology, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2000.
Vita. Includes bibliographical references.
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Volker, Bernt Deecke. "The vocal behaviour of transient killer whales (Orcinus orca) : communicating with costly calls." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.631228.

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Giles, Deborah A. "Southern Resident Killer Whales (Orcinus orca)| The evolution of adaptive management practices for vessel-based killer whale watching in the Salish Sea, A novel non-invasive method to study southern resident killer whales (Orcinus orca) and vessel compliance with regulations, and The effect of vessels on group cohesion and behavior of southern resident killer whales (Orcinus orca)." Thesis, University of California, Davis, 2014. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3626639.

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This dissertation concerns the southern resident killer whales (Orcinus orca), a genetically isolated population of fish-eating killer whales that frequent the international waters of the Salish Sea between the United States and Canada in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Research was conducted from June 1 to October 31, 2007 and from June 7 to October 31, 2008, between geographic coordinates: 48°12’ to 49° N latitude by 122°43’ to 123°50° W longitude.

The southern resident killer whale population has experienced multiple fluctuations since population surveys were initiated by the Center for Whale Research (CWR) in the mid 1970's. In November 2005, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Northwest Regional Office listed the southern resident killer whales as an endangered distinct population segment of the species Orcinus orca under the United States Endangered Species Act (ESA). Several risk factors including reductions in the quantity and quality of prey (salmon), exposure to persistent toxins, and disturbance from vessel presence and associated noise were identified as contributing to the decline of this already small population. With the listing under the ESA, critical habitat was designated in the inland waters around the U.S. San Juan Islands, Washington State and the Canadian Gulf Islands, British Columbia, Canada.

Chapter one, Managing Vessel-based Killer Whale Watching: A Critical Assessment of the Evolution from Voluntary Guidelines to Regulations in the Salish Sea, provides background on the southern resident killer whales and the robust international whale watching industry in the region. This chapter also provides a detailed history of local, state, federal and international vessel laws and guidelines for watching whales in the Salish Sea.

Chapter two, Non-invasive methods to study southern resident killer whales and vessel compliance with regulations, describes a novel equipment package, consisting of a differential GPS integrated with a digital compass and laser rangefinder that allowed me to collect accurate geo-referenced locations and behavioral data on whales and vessels throughout the whale's critical habitat. To improve both the spatial and temporal data on whale-vessel interactions, the information collected with this equipment was used to assess vessel compliance with local, state and federal laws and the regionally accepted best-practices Be Whale Wise Guidelines.

Chapter three, The effects of vessels on group cohesion and behavior of southern resident killer whales (Orcinus orca), discusses research investigating changes in killer whale group cohesion in response to vessel density, distance and mode of operation. Future cetacean studies would benefit from using the equipment and methods presented here, especially in areas that are not conducive to land-based theodolite collected data.

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Duc, Anne-Valérie. "A comparison of the discrete call repertoires of Northeast Atlantic killer whales (Orcinus orca)." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för biologisk grundutbildning, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-157829.

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Although Icelandic and Norwegian killer whales are thought to have been in contact prior to the collapse of the herring stock in the 1960s, the Northeast Atlantic killer whales currently seem to show high site fidelity. So far, photoidentification data have suggested movement of a few individuals between East Iceland and North Scotland, and two calls have been shown to be shared by the Icelandic and Norwegian populations. Based on previous and newly analysed call samples, the aim of this study was to describe the geographic variation in the vocal repertoire of the Northeast Atlantic killer whales. Recordings have been conducted off Southwest Iceland in the summers 2004, 2008 and 2009 using sound recording tags attached using suction cups (Dtags), a 4-element vertical hydrophone array and a 2-element towed hydrophone array. From the 57 hours of recording analysed, 1742 calls were classified. In total, 56 distinct call categories composed of 35 call types and 31 subtypes were identified. This discrete call repertoire contained less biphonic calls but more calls composed of buzzes and/or clicks than the Norwegian repertoire. The reasons for these differences remain unknown. One Icelandic call subtype was defined as a compound call, a type of call that is common in the Norwegian population. The comparison of the different vocal repertoires of Northeast Atlantic showed four good or likely call matches in herring-eating killer whales (one between Southwest Iceland and Shetland, one between East Iceland and Norway, and two between Shetland and Norway). No matches were found between Southwest Iceland and East Iceland. I suggest that the four shared calls are most likely to have come from a common ancestral pod and have been transmitted through vocal learning. Over time, geographic isolation of the groups induced by changes in the migratory patterns of the herring might have been accompanied by divergence in their call repertoires.
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Tavares, Sara B. "Social associations, relatedness and population genetic structure of killer whales (Orcinus orca) in Iceland." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/12061.

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In killer whales, fish- versus mammal-eating ecological differences are regarded as key ecological drivers of sociality, but the potential influence of specific target prey characteristics remains unclear. This thesis aimed to study the social patterns and dynamics of Icelandic killer whales feeding upon herring, a schooling prey that undergoes frequent changes in distribution and school size. I used a multi-disciplinary approach combining photo-identification and genetic data to understand the sociality, role of kinship and genetic differentiation within the population. Individuals sighted in summer-spawning and overwintering herring grounds during at least five separate days (N = 198) were considered associated if photographed within 20 seconds of each other. Photo-identified individuals were genotyped (N = 61) for 22 microsatellites and mitochondrial DNA control region (611 bp). The population had weak but non-random associations, fission-fusion dynamics at the individual level and seasonal patterns of preferred associations. The society was significantly structured but not hierarchically. Social clusters were highly diverse and, whilst kinship was correlated with association, it was not a prerequisite for social membership. Indeed, some cluster members had different mitochondrial haplotypes, representing separate maternal lineages. Individuals with different observed movement patterns were genetically distinct, but associated with each other. No sex-biased dispersal or inbreeding was detected. This study revealed that the Icelandic population has a multilevel society without clear hierarchical tiers or nested coherent social units, different from the well-studied salmon- (‘residents') and seal-eating populations in the Northeast Pacific. In the Icelandic population kinship drives social structure less strongly than in residents. These findings suggest effective foraging on schooling herring in seasonal grounds promotes the formation of flexible social groupings which can include non-kin. Killer whale sociality may be strongly influenced by local ecological context, such as the characteristics of the specific target prey (e.g., predictability, biomass, and density) and subsequent foraging strategies of the population.
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Shapiro, Ari Daniel. "Orchestration : the movement and vocal behavior of free-ranging Norwegian killer whales (Orcinus orca)." Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/43229.

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Biology; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2008.
Includes bibliographical references.
Studying the social and cultural transmission of behavior among animals helps to identify patterns of interaction and information content flowing between individuals. Killer whales are likely to acquire traits culturally based on their population-specific feeding behaviors and group-distinctive vocal repertoires. I used digital tags to explore the contributions of individual Norwegian killer whales to group carousel feeding and the relationships between vocal and non-vocal activity. Periods of tail slapping to incapacitate herring during feeding were characterized by elevated movement variability, heightened vocal activity and call types containing additional orientation cues. Tail slaps produced by tagged animals were identified using a rapid pitch change and occurred primarily within 20m of the surface. Two simultaneously tagged animals maneuvered similarly when tail slapping within 60s of one another, indicating that the position and composition of the herring ball influenced their behavior. Two types of behavioral sequence preceding the tight circling of carousel feeding were apparent. First, the animals engaged in periods of directional swimming. They were silent in 2 of 3 instances, suggesting they may have located other foraging groups by eavesdropping. Second, tagged animals made broad horizontal loops as they dove in a manner consistent with corralling. All 4 of these occasions were accompanied by vocal activity, indicating that this and tail slapping may benefit from social communication. No significant relationship between the call types and the actual movement measurements was found. Killer whale vocalizations traditionally have been classified into discrete call types. Using human speech processing techniques, I considered that calls are alternatively comprised of shared segments that can be recombined to form the stereotyped and variable repertoire.
(cont.) In a classification experiment, the characterization of calls using the whole call, a set of unshared segments, or a set of shared segments yielded equivalent performance. The shared segments required less information to parse the same vocalizations, suggesting a more parsimonious system of representation. This closer examination of the movements and vocalizations of Norwegian killer whales, combined with future work on ontogeny and transmission, will inform our understanding of whether and how culture plays a role in achieving population-specific behaviors in this species.
by Ari Daniel Shapiro.
Ph.D.
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Foster, Emma Anne. "Exploring the mechanisms and functions underpinning the social networks of an endangered population of killer whales, Orcinus orca." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10036/3739.

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For the majority of social species, group composition is dynamic, and individuals are interconnected in a heterogeneous social network. In this study I investigate the mechanisms underpinning social structure in the endangered southern resident killer whale (Orcinus Orca) population using a long term dataset, and explore the consequences of these. My results demonstrate that resource availability may be an important determinant of social network structure. A significant relationship between the connectivity of the social network and salmon abundance occurred, with a more interconnected network in years of high salmon abundance. As networks are non-random, highly connected individuals may play a key role in population processes such as information and disease transmission. While associations occurred both within and between matrilines, females had a significantly higher number of associates than males, as did older individuals of both sexes. Older males played a more important role in interconnecting the network. The attributes of group leadership were then investigated in matrilines and in individuals. Leadership was not a factor of size or mean age of matriline. However, there was a significant relationship between leadership score and the matriline sex ratio. Individually, females had higher leadership scores than males, and there was a positive correlation between leadership score and age in both sexes. I suggest that the oldest females have the highest 4 leadership scores due to increased ecological knowledge that comes with a prolonged lifespan. Using multi-generational records for two populations of killer whales, I show that both reproductive and post-reproductive mothers increase the survival of offspring, particularly in older male offspring. This is consistent with theoretical predictions, and may explain why female killer-whales have evolved the longest post-reproductive lifespan of all non-human animals. Given the role that individuals of high network centrality can play in population processes, understanding the driving forces behind social network structure is vital when designing effective conservation and management plans.
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Books on the topic "Killer whales (Orcinus orca)"

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Miller, Patrick J. O. Maintaining contact: Design and use of acoustic signals in killer whales, Orcinus orca. Woods Hole, Mass: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2000.

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M, Ellis Graeme, and Balcomb Kenneth C. 1940-, eds. Killer whales: The natural history and genealogy of Orcinus orca in British Columbia and Washington State. Vancouver, BC: UBC Press, 1994.

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A photographic catalog of killer whales, Orcinus orca, from the central Gulf of Alaska to the southeastern Bering Sea. Seattle, Wash: U.S. Dept. of Commerce, National oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, Scientific Publications Office, 1997.

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Petras, Elizabeth. A review of marine mammal deterrents and their possible applications to limit killer whale (Orcinus orca) predation on Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus). Seattle, WA: Alaska Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2003.

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ill, Lee Katie 1942, ed. Orca song. Norwalk, Conn: Soundprints, 1994.

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León, Vicki. A pod of killer whales. San Luis Obispo, Calif: Blake Publishing, 1989.

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ill, Foott Jeff, ed. A pod of killer whales. Parsippany, NJ: Silver Burdett, 1995.

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Meister, Cari. The stranded orca. North Mankato, Minn: Capstone Stone Arch Books, 2012.

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ill, Roberts Linda, ed. Orca! the killer whale: Including a paper animal-cap! New York: Harper, 1990.

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Meister, Cari. The stranded orca. North Mankato, Minn: Capstone Stone Arch Books, 2012.

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Book chapters on the topic "Killer whales (Orcinus orca)"

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Holt, Marla M., Dawn P. Noren, and Candice K. Emmons. "Does Vessel Noise Affect the Use of Sound by Foraging Orcinus orca (Killer Whales)?" In Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, 327–30. New York, NY: Springer New York, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7311-5_73.

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Samarra, Filipa I. P., and Patrick J. O. Miller. "Identifying Variations in Baseline Behavior of Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) to Contextualize Their Responses to Anthropogenic Noise." In The Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life II, 963–68. New York, NY: Springer New York, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2981-8_119.

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"Killer Whale (Orcinus orca)." In The Western Arctic Seas Encyclopedia, 180–81. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25582-8_110043.

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Colby, Jason M. "“The Most Terrible Jaws Afloat”." In Orca. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190673093.003.0005.

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Gaius plinius secundus had witnessed a lot of violence in his life—war in Germania, Sicilian raids, Nero’s reign of terror—but killer whales really seemed to scare him. Known to history as Pliny the Elder, he penned the first known description of Orcinus orca in his encyclopedic Naturalis Historia, completed shortly before his death in 79 CE. It painted a bloody picture. The orca “cannot be in any way adequately described,” Pliny asserted, “but as an enormous mass of flesh armed with teeth.” Whereas dolphins sometimes befriended people and even helped fishermen, the killer whale preyed on mother baleen whales and their vulnerable calves. “This animal attacks the balaena in its places of retirement,” he wrote, “and with its teeth tears its young, or else attacks the females which have just brought forth, and, indeed, while they are still pregnant.” Fleeing whales could expect no mercy from orcas, who “kill them either cooped up in a narrow passage, or else drive them on a shoal, or dash them to pieces against the rocks.” So frightful were these battles to behold, Pliny noted, that it appeared “as though the sea were infuriate against itself.” In short, the destructive power of a killer whale had to be seen to be believed. Pliny himself had seen one. Around 50 CE, an orca had wandered into the harbor of Ostia, Rome’s port city. The animal had been drawn there, it seemed, by a ship from Gaul, which had run aground and spilled its cargo of hides. As the whale investigated, it became stuck in the shallows, unable to maneuver. Soon its back and dorsal fin were visible above the water, recounted Pliny, “very much resembling in appearance the keel of a vessel turned bottom upwards.” Sensing an opportunity, the emperor Claudius arrived from Rome, ordering local fishermen to net off the harbor. After waiting for a crowd to gather, he led his praetorians into battle against the trapped whale. The result was “a spectacle to the Roman people,” wrote Pliny. “Boats assailed the monster, while the soldiers on board showered lances upon it.” But the orca fought back, sinking at least one vessel before it succumbed.
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Colby, Jason M. "Introduction." In Orca. Oxford University Press, 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190673093.003.0004.

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As a boy, I saw my dad cry on only three occasions. One was his father’s funeral. The other two involved dead orcas. In the 1970s, he worked as curator of Sealand of the Pacific, a small oceanarium near Victoria, British Columbia, and then for the Seattle Marine Aquarium and Sea World. On both sides of the US-Canadian border, across the Salish Sea, he helped capture killer whales for sale and display—or, as he darkly joked, “for fun and profit.” Tell someone today that your father caught orcas for a living and you might as well declare him a slave trader. Killer whales are arguably the most recognized and beloved wild species on the planet. They are certainly the most profitable display animals in history, and with the 2013 release of Blackfish, their fate became an international cause célèbre. Broadcast and distributed by CNN, the film became one of the most influential documentaries of all time. Already years into my research for this book when the movie came out, I found little in it surprising. But Blackfish turned my father, long conflicted about his past, sharply against orca captivity. He wasn’t alone. Almost over­night, viewers, politicians, and activists turned their sights on Sea World—a multibillion-dollar corporation famous for its killer whale shows. In this debate, it seemed there was no room for nuance or history. Millions around the world simply knew in their hearts that orcas had to be saved from captiv­ity. What they didn’t realize was that, decades earlier, captivity may have saved the world’s orcas. Orcinus orca is the apex predator of the ocean, but that ocean has changed rapidly in recent decades. Following World War II, rising populations and new technology drove humans to plunder the sea as never before, and many regarded killer whales as dangerous pests. By the 1950s, whalers, scientists, and fishermen around the world were killing hundreds, perhaps thousands, per year. In a single expedition, celebrated by Time magazine, US soldiers slaughtered more than one hundred off Iceland. But then a curious thing happened.
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Bisther, Anna, and Dag Vongraven. "Studies of the social ecology of Norwegian killer whales (Orcinus orca)." In Developments in Marine Biology, 169–76. Elsevier, 1995. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0163-6995(06)80020-x.

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Esteban, R., P. Verborgh, P. Gauffier, D. Alarcón, J. M. Salazar-Sierra, J. Giménez, A. D. Foote, and R. de Stephanis. "Conservation Status of Killer Whales, Orcinus orca, in the Strait of Gibraltar." In Advances in Marine Biology, 141–72. Elsevier, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/bs.amb.2016.07.001.

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"Life in the Slow Lane: Ecology and Conservation of Long-Lived Marine Animals." In Life in the Slow Lane: Ecology and Conservation of Long-Lived Marine Animals, edited by Solange Brault. American Fisheries Society, 1999. http://dx.doi.org/10.47886/9781888569155.ch8.

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<em>Abstract.</em> —A suite of stage- and age-classified models are constructed to determine whether an apparently unusual event is the result of external, environmental causes in a small population. These models are used as a baseline, or null hypothesis, that such an event may result from population structure and demographic stochasticity. An observed multiyear reproductive delay in a pod of killer whales <em>Orcinus orca </em> is used as an example of this process. All models, regardless of their complexity, give the same qualitative result: the observed reproductive delay could not be explained by pod composition and demographic stochasticity; external causes have to be sought to explain this phenomenon.
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Vongraven, Dag, and Anna Bisther. "Possible effects of previous catch on the present population of Norwegian killer whales (Orcinus orca)." In Developments in Marine Biology, 177–79. Elsevier, 1995. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0163-6995(06)80021-1.

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"Caught Napping by (Sea) Wolves: International Wildlife Law and Unforeseen Circumstances Involving the Killer Whale (Orcinus orca) and the Gray Wolf (Canis lupus)." In What's Wrong with International Law?, 199–213. Brill | Nijhoff, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/9789004294585_016.

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Conference papers on the topic "Killer whales (Orcinus orca)"

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De Clerck, Sara, Filipa I. P. Samarra, Jörundur Svavarsson, Xavier Mouy, and Paul Wensveen. "Noise influences the acoustic behavior of killer whales, Orcinus orca, in Iceland." In 5th International Conference on the Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life. ASA, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/2.0001219.

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"Modeling the Killer Whale Orcinus orca via the Lefkovitch Matrix." In 3rd International Conference on Chemical, Agricultural and Medical Sciences. International Institute of Chemical, Biological & Environmental Engineering, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.15242/iicbe.c1215026.

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Goleva, A. V., and N. A. Lisitsyna. "Legal aspects of capturing killer whales (Orcinus orca) for educational and cultural purposes in 2018." In Marine mammals of the Holarctic. Marine Mammal Council, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.35267/978-5-9904294-0-6-2019-1-86-92.

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Reports on the topic "Killer whales (Orcinus orca)"

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Stevens, Tracy. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA restriction fragment patterns in killer whales, Orcinus orca. Portland State University Library, January 2000. http://dx.doi.org/10.15760/etd.5812.

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Watkins, William A., Mary A. Daher, Nancy A. DiMarzio, and Gina Reppucci. Distinctions in Sound Patterns of Calls by Killer Whales (Orcinus Orca) from Analysis of Computed Sound Features. Fort Belvoir, VA: Defense Technical Information Center, March 1998. http://dx.doi.org/10.21236/ada341030.

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