Orca
Orcinus orca (Linnaeus, 1758)
DDData Deficientwhales and dolphins
The orca (Orcinus orca), also called the killer whale, is a mammal of the order Cetacea and the family Delphinidae, grouped with the whales and dolphins. It falls in the giant size class, with an adult body mass of 4.3 tonnes, and it is a marine, cathemeral carnivore.
Quick facts about the orca
Its main foods include fish, salmon, clupea harengus, gadus morhua, teuthida, grey seal, california sea lion, humpback whale and great white shark. Its lifespan is listed as 90 years, with values up to 100 years, and it is listed as Data Deficient (DD) on the IUCN Red List in a global assessment.
- Weight
- 4.3 tsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 90 years – 100 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Carnivoresrc for Diet
- Main food
- african penguin, albatross, atlantic bluefin tuna, atlantic spotted dolphin, atlantic wolffish, balaenoptera musculus and 42 moresrc for Main food
- Habitat
- marinesrc for Habitat
- Gestation
- 455 days – 517 dayssrc for Gestation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 11.5 years – 13.5 yearssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 0.21src for Litters or clutches a year
- Active
- Day and night (cathemeral)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Marinesrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Data Deficient (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- Not recorded
Photos of the orca
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
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Where does the orca live?
Not recorded
What is the orca?
The orca (Orcinus orca), or killer whale, is a toothed whale and the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family. The only extant species in the genus Orcinus, it is recognizable by its distinct pigmentation, being mostly black on top, white on the bottom, and having recognizable white eye patches. A cosmopolitan species, it inhabits a wide range of marine environments, from Arctic to Antarctic regions to tropical seas, but is more commonly documented in temperate or cooler coastal waters. Scientists have proposed dividing the global population into races, subspecies, or possibly even species.
Orcas are apex predators with a diverse diet. Individual populations often specialize in particular types of prey, including bony fish, sharks, rays, and marine mammals such as seals, dolphins, and whales. They are highly social, with some populations forming stable matrilineal family groups (pods). Their sophisticated hunting techniques and vocal behaviours, often unique to specific groups and passed down from generation to generation, are considered to be manifestations of animal culture. The most studied populations are off the west coast of North America, which include fish-eating "residents", mammal-eating "transients", and offshores.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the orca's conservation status as data deficient as multiple orca types may represent distinct species. Some local populations are threatened or endangered due to prey depletion, habitat loss, pollution (by PCBs), captures for marine parks, and conflicts with fisheries. In late 2005, the southern resident orcas were added to the US Endangered Species list.
Orcas have been revered by indigenous peoples from regions including the Pacific Northwest, Australia and Peru, while Western cultures have historically feared them. They have been taken by whalers when stocks of larger species have declined. The orca's image took a positive turn in the 1960s, due to greater public and scientific awareness and their display in captivity. Since then, orcas have been trained to perform in marine parks, a practice that has been criticized as unethical. Orcas rarely pose a threat to humans, and no fatal attack has been recorded in the wild. However, captive orcas have injured or killed their handlers in marine theme parks.
From the Wikipedia article “Orca” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Orca&oldid=1384333693), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
What does the orca sound like?
Is the orca endangered?
The orca is listed as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List: it has too little data for its risk to be assessed.
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Data Deficient species.
How is the orca classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classMammalia
- orderCetacea
- familyDelphinidae
- genusOrcinus
- SpeciesOrcinus orca (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms Delphinus duhameli, Delphinus gladiator, Delphinus grampus, Delphinus orca, Delphinus orca ensidoratus, Delphinus serra, Delphinus victorini, Grampus orca, Grampus rectipinna, Grampus vectipinna, Ophysia pacifica, Orca africana, Orca antarctica, Orca ater fusca, Orca atra, Orca capensis, Orca eschrichtii, Orca glacialis, Orca gladiator, Orca gladiator arcticus, Orca gladiator australis, Orca gladiator europaeus, Orca gladiator tasmaniensis, Orca latirostris, Orca megellanica, Orca minor, Orca orca, Orca orca megallanicus, Orca pacifica, Orca schlegelii, Orca stenorhyncha, Orca tasmanica, Orcinus glacialis, Orcinus nanus, Orcinus orca capensis, Orcinus orca eschrichti, Orcinus orca megallanicus, Physeter microps
Other names and names in other languages (155)
- BlackfishEnglish
- GrampusEnglish
- Killer whaleEnglish
- Killer whaleEnglish
- Killer-trasherEnglish
- Orca (killer whale)English
- Orca whaleEnglish
- Sword grampusEnglish
- SwordfishEnglish
- moordvisAfrikaans
- RoofwalvisAfrikaans
- カムィフㇺベAinu
- レプンカムィAinu
- agulukAleut
- dukuladAleut
- أوركاArabic
- حوت سفاحArabic
- حوت قاتلArabic
- SperlonAsturian
- nookurauq
- КасаткаBelarusian
- КосаткаBulgarian
- kosаtkаBulgarian
- སྟག་ཆུ་སྲིན།Tibetan
- SkoazogBreton
- musonkjgyssiakckt
- kosatka draváCzech
- lleiddiadWelsh
- LleiddiaidWelsh
- orca gwrywWelsh
- ornswinDanish
- spækhuggerDanish
- svaerdvalDanish
- svarthvalDanish
- tandthoyeDanish
- ButskopfGerman
- ButzkopfGerman
- großer SchwertwalGerman
- KillerwalGerman
- MörderwalGerman
- SchwertwalGerman
- ΌρκαGreek
- Granda orcinoEsperanto
- macheteSpanish
- ballena asesinaSpanish
- ballena pintaSpanish
- ballena quilaSpanish
- bufeo de mascarillaSpanish
- cahuel-huaiqueSpanish
- delfin giganteSpanish
- espadarteSpanish
- moscoteSpanish
- Orca comúnSpanish
- orca verdaderaSpanish
- marzuplaBasque
- ezpalartaBasque
- نهنگ قاتلPersian
- miekkavalasFinnish
- bovhidehvalFaroese
- BóghvítuhvalurFaroese
- orqueFrench
- dorqueFrench
- epaulardFrench
- épaulardFrench
- epée de merFrench
- orque épaulardFrench
- orque gladiateurFrench
- Cráin dhubhIrish
- pictwaleScottish Gaelic
- madadh-cuainScottish Gaelic
- madaidhean-cuainScottish Gaelic
- candorcaGalician
- Fú-kînHakka Chinese
- קטלןHebrew
- לוויתן קטלןHebrew
- kardszárnyú delfinHungarian
- ԽոյադելֆինArmenian
- seguniIndonesian
- paus pemangsaIndonesian
- Paus pembunuhIndonesian
- adlukInuktitut
- AaġluInupiaq
- hahyrnaIcelandic
- fann-fiskar-hydengenIcelandic
- haa-hirningurIcelandic
- hahyrningurIcelandic
- HáhyrningurIcelandic
- huydingIcelandic
- sverdfiscurIcelandic
- Orca assassinaItalian
- シャチJapanese
- 鯱Japanese
- sadshiJapanese
- sakamataJapanese
- shachiJapanese
- takaJapanese
- takamatsuJapanese
- ცელნამგალა ვეშაპიGeorgian
- aarlukKalaallisut
- ardlursarkKalaallisut
- ardlykKalaallisut
- 범고래Korean
- beom-goraeKorean
- innuatuKorean
- ZobenvalisLatvian
- trozona mpamondMalagasy
- MakiMāori
- KākahiMāori
- Кит убиецMacedonian
- കൊലയാളി തിമിംഗലംMalayalam
- Алуурчин халимMongolian
- stylefont-family:'Pyidaungsuကဗံၚ်ဗှ်ဂစိုတ်mnw
- Łóóʼtsoh łizhin dóó łigaígííNavajo
- spekkhoggerNorwegian Bokmål
- botskopDutch
- zwaardwalvisDutch
- spekkhoggarNorwegian Nynorsk
- vaghundNorwegian
- hvalhundNorwegian
- spaekhoggerNorwegian
- spekkhuggerNorwegian
- starhyn ningNorwegian
- staurhvalNorwegian
- stourvagaNorwegian
- stourvagnNorwegian
- van hundNorwegian
- Orcinus orcaNovial
- Orka oceanicznaPolish
- کلر وہیلWestern Panjabi
- baleia asesinaPortuguese
- Baleia-assassinaPortuguese
- roaz-de-bandeiraPortuguese
- kasatkaRussian
- или кит убийцаRussian
- kosatkaRussian
- FahkonNorthern Sami
- fáhkanNorthern Sami
- orkaSlovenian
- Balena vrasëseAlbanian
- Кит убицаSerbian
- opareSwedish
- löpareSwedish
- spackhuggareSwedish
- späckhuggareSwedish
- svärdfiskSwedish
- tunnlik tumlareSwedish
- ஓர்க்கா திமிங்கலம்Tamil
- ఓర్కాTelugu
- วาฬเพชฌฆาตThai
- plawan phechakhatThai
- soweli kala pimeja waloToki Pona
- katil balinaTurkish
- Cá hổ kìnhVietnamese
- 杀人鲸Wu Chinese
- 虎鯨Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the orca
Other species in the same genus Orcinus.
Bigg's killer whale
Orcinus rectipinnus
Resident killer whale
Orcinus ater
CompareOrca vs Bigg's killer whaleOrca vs Resident killer whale
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is an orca?
The orca is a mammal in the order Cetacea, suborder Odontoceti and family Delphinidae, grouped with the whales and dolphins.
How heavy is an orca?
An adult orca has a body mass of 4.3 tonnes (4,300 kg), placing it in the giant size class.
What does an orca eat?
The orca is a carnivore. Its main foods include fish, salmon, clupea harengus, teuthida, octopodidae, grey seal, elephant seal, walrus, narwhal, humpback whale and emperor penguin.
How long does an orca live?
The orca's lifespan is listed as 90 years, with values up to 100 years reported.
Is the orca endangered?
The orca is listed as Data Deficient (DD) on the IUCN Red List in a global assessment.
How many young does an orca have?
An orca has 1 young per litter, with 0.21 litters per year, after a gestation period of 454.7 days (1.2 years).
When does an orca reach sexual maturity?
An orca reaches sexual maturity at 12.5 years, with reported values from 11.5 to 13.5 years.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Orca (Orcinus orca). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/orca
“Orca (Orcinus orca).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/orca.
@misc{orca_2026,
title = {Orca (Orcinus orca)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/orca},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}