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Shocking footage of captive orca butting head against wall

Shocking footage of captive orca butting head against wall

A wild orca in Iceland

Distressing scenes have recently emerged from Marineland in Ontario where Kiska, the loneliest whale in the world, has been filmed violently thrashing her head against the side of her tank. Kiska is a wild caught Icelandic orca who has spent the last four decades in captivity. She was just three years old when she was…

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Tragic tale of the UK orcas facing extinction

If you watched David Attenborough’s Extinction: The Facts, you’ll have heard the tragic account of the group of orcas known as the West Coast Community. They face almost certain extinction because of human chemical pollution.  These orcas spend their time between Scotland, Wales and Ireland and until 2016 it was believed that there were nine…

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Why do female orcas live so long after they stop having babies?

Orcas are one of only five species known to experience menopause and females can live for many decades after their last calf.  The only other mammals reported to exhibit this unusual life history strategy are short-finned pilot whales, belugas, narwhals and humans. The question of why females of any species should stop reproduction before the…

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Mystery surrounds orca harassment of boats

Scientists are trying to work out why a pod of orcas have been damaging passing boats off the coasts of Spain and Portugal in recent weeks. Several boats have been targeted as they sailed through the region with the whales appearing to deliberately ram the boats’ hulls. Some have lost their rudders and steering as…

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Tahlequah the orca has a new calf

Tahlequah (J35) with her calf J57. Photo by Katie Jones, Center for Whale Research / Permit #21238 Tahlequah (J35), an orca from the Southern Resident population, has given birth to a new calf (J57). They were seen swimming together at the end of last week by scientists from the Center for Whale Research. In 2018…

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How we’re helping to keep orcas safe from capture in Russia

In 1999, we helped open up whale research in Russia, building a photo-ID catalogue of orcas as well as a Russian team to study them. We called this the Far East Russia Orca Project, or FEROP, and it’s still going strong today. FEROP has trained a generation of young students in photo-ID, acoustic recording and…

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Are whales migrating huge distances for a skin makeover?

Tracking the movement of over 6o orcas in the coastal waters of Antarctica from 2009 to 2016, a scientific team has put forward another reason why some whales migrate over huge distances from one part of the globe to another – smooth skin. There have been many reasons cited as to why whales complete these…

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Russia to give orcas greater protection

According to reports, Viktoria Abramchenko, the Deputy Prime Minister in Russia responsible for environmental affairs, has announced that transient orcas are going to be added to the country’s Red Data Book of endangered species. In recent years, Russia has allowed a number of orcas to be captured for sale to the captivity industry. The whales…

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Record breaker Riptide the orca swims from Iceland to Lebanon

A male orca, commonly known as Riptide, has been spotted in waters around Beirut, Lebanon, on February 19th and 20th after completing what is thought to be a record breaking journey. Riptide belongs to an Icelandic pod of orcas that has notably been travelling unprecedented distances over the past year. It is believed his journey…

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