They give birth to one baby at a time, which may nurse for up to two years. Mothers give birth every three to ten years, after a 17-month pregnancy. ( Learn more about how grandmother orcas care for their children's offspring.) Orcas are protective of their young, and other adolescent females often assist the mother in caring for them. All pods use effective, cooperative hunting techniques that some liken to the behavior of wolf packs. Resident pods tend to prefer fish, while transient pods target marine mammals. These different groups may prey on different animals and use different techniques to catch them. There appear to be both resident and transient pod populations of orcas. Orcas hunt in deadly pods, family groups of up to 40 individuals. They are known to grab seals right off the ice. They're at the top of the food chain and have very diverse diets, feasting on fish, penguins, and marine mammals such as seals, sea lions, and even whales, employing teeth that can be four inches long. Though they often frequent cold, coastal waters, orcas can be found from the polar regions to the Equator. ( Learn more about the unique culture of killer whales.) Hunting and diet They use echolocation to communicate and hunt, making sounds that travel underwater until they encounter objects, then bounce back, revealing their location, size, and shape. Smart and social, orcas make a wide variety of communicative sounds, and each pod has distinctive noises that its members will recognize even at a distance. They're immediately recognizable by their distinctive black-and-white coloring. Orcas, or killer whales, are the largest of the dolphins and one of the world's most powerful predators. Current Population Trend: Unknown What are orcas?
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