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Killer Whale

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Killer whale images (Orcinus orca) - stock photos, illustrations & facts showing this largest member of the dolphin family, a popular exhibit in controversial theme park captivity

Our killer whale image collection is the best in the world from underwater to topside, created by the world’s best professional wildlife photographers. We also have many pictures of the animal’s various behaviors and anatomical features, including blowing, spouting, breaching, hunting, feeding, flukes, Keiko, bones, skeletons, etc. This is your go-to stock photo resource for high quality killer whale images.

Kingdom: Animalia > Phylum: Chordata > Class: Mammalia > Order: Artiodactyla > Infraorder: Cetacea > Family: Delphinidae > Genus: Orcinus > Species: O. orca - Binomial name: Orcinus orca

The Killer Whale or Orca, Orcinus orca, is the largest species of dolphinn, found in all oceans. They are easily recognized by their distinctive black and white markings. They have a heavy stocky body and a large dorsal fin. Males can grow to 25 feet and weigh more than 13,000 pounds. At birth, calves weigh around 400 pounds and 7 feet long. All members of the pod share in the care of the young. The typical lifespan is around 50. However, that of captive killer whales is much less, rarely up to 25 years.

Killer whales are among the fastest marine mammals, often reaching speeds of 35 miles per hour, and are called the apex predator of the marine world. A pod will hunt as a pack, and feed on a wide variety of prey, including fish, sharks, rays, sea lions, seals, cephalopods, sea turtles, penguins, sea birds, other cetaceans. They are highly social and live in family groups that exhibit sophisticated social, hunting and vocal behavior using a wide variety of clicks and whistles for communication and echolocation. Among their cooperative hunting techniques is wave-hunting, where the killer whale pod finds a seal resting on an ice floe and swims in groups to create large waves to wash the seal into the ocean where it can be killed.

The killer whales beautiful appearance, huge size, and intelligence have made it a popular exhibit at theme parks. This practice is highly controversial and many conservation organizations campaign against the captivity of killer whales. In captivity, killer whales develop physical pathologies such as dorsal fin collapse, and live in small tanks and false social groupings. This has led to severely reduced life expectancy, and stress-induced aggressiveness towards themselves, other killer whales and people.

The plight of killer whales in captivity went to the big screen with the movie Free Willy, which starred a captive killer whale called Keiko, who was rescued in 1996 and eventually found limited freedom first in Iceland and then in Halsa, Norway. After so many years in captivity, Keiko was never able to learn how to hunt for his own food and needed food provided. He eventually died of pneumonia while in the wild in December 2003, at 27 years old.
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