Orca

Is your organism a GENERALIST (having a broad niche) or a SPECIALIST (having a narrow niche)? Provide a map that illustrates you know the difference between these two terms

An Orca is the largest member of the “dolphin family”, and did you also know that most Orca’s are apart of the generalist species? This means that they can thrive in any amount of environmental conditions and have a wide range for their diets. Some types of Orcas stay in small pods in certain areas, making those types of Orca's considered specialists. Orca’s inhabiting places like Sea World are included. Orca’s diets, that are considered generalists, can consist of smaller sharks or any other seafood, seeing as they are at the top of the food chain. These generalist Orca's choose a wide variety of prey, for example, they eat elephant seals, penguins, fish, sea lions, walruses, occasionally sea otters, and other toothed whales. This is all included in their restricted/narrow specialist diets. 

Describe the niche of your organism

• Carnivorous (eat meat)

• Hunt in packs

• At the top of every food chain (unless humans disturb it)

• Eats seals, penguins, otters, squid, octopus, rays, fish

• Have no predator (other than humans)

• Inhabit all oceans in the world

• Most widely distributed mammal 

• Most abundant in coastal waters, also Pacific and Atlantic Oceans

• 4 types of killer whales in Antarctic waters, based off of where they live

1. Live near the North/South poles, off shore in ice-free water

2. Live near the inshore waters of Antarctica and Antarctic Peninsula

3. Inshore waters in eastern Antarctic

4. Rarest - live in deep sub-antarctic waters

What is an Orca whales prey ?

• Orca whale is on the top of the food chain no other animal ( other than humans ) hunts the orca 

• These killer whales love to eat sea creatures like sea birds , sharks , squid , octopus , sea turtles and rays/fish .

• Hunt down other marine mammals like seals and dugongs 

• The way the Orca whale hunts it prey really depends on the type of prey it is . The primary prey of an Orca is a young Grey whale calves

•  -The way the Orca eliminates its prey is by drowning the grey whale by not letting it        breath because the orca will covers its blowhole long enough until it eventually dies 

• The Orca Whale has amazing vision and can detect predators from almost anywhere and also use the sense of hearing to avoid any danger , If an Orca Whale runs into a predator it will use its tail to stun the predator.

Describe your organism’s ability to adapt to changes in the environment (Describe what ‘change’ is ACTUALLY occuring in the environment!). Is it human caused? Natural? Be specific!

Since Orcas are generalists, that also means they can adapt to more environments. They have freely and naturally adapted to living underwater, and this includes having the ability to dive to at least 100 metres deep for 3-4 minutes. They’ve also adapted in the aspects of speed, that is they can swim up to 30 mph to catch prey, which is very impressive and helps to catch more food, but can also swim at slower speeds, like 8 mph. These killer whales have also adapted to other temperatures in their environment, take colder water for example, since they are warm blooded mammals, they can tolerate colder waters. They use blubber as an insulation layer to help maintain energy and warmth when they dive into colder depths or swim to colder waters, like in Alaska. The blubber is thick, about 6 inches thick, and is a layer of fat found under the skin. Living in the sea poses a challenge for marine mammals, but since killer whales are larger animals, their size helps minimize heat loss, hence this being a reason on how they can tolerate freezing temperatures. 

How has genetic variation enabled your organism to survive in its environment?

Genetics and evolution have enabled Orcas to adapt to its surroundings in every ocean on Earth. Over the course of time, they have evolved into hunting in orderly packs and convert their diet to whatever they can eat depending on their location. Some of the similarities and differences between pods are that some orcas diets are primarily fish or mammals while others are mainly birds and reptiles. Some stay in and around one place while others travel. Different behaviors in orca’s can be linked to the different genetic variations. For example, one variant in the metabolic system turns the amino acid methionine into protein building cysteine. The variant found in those orcas that eat dolphins or seals helps turn surplus cysteine back into methionine for later use. Mammals can’t create their own methionine, it enters the system through a protein filled diet. So some orcas had evolved to the point where they’ve essentially created a safety valve for themselves. That means that an excess amount of cysteine could be saved in the body until it’s needed. 

Jot Notes-

• Came from whales 50 million years ago

• Live nearly as long as humans, become adults around the same time as humans

• Store vital nutrients between meals

• Have adapted to live in the poles of the world, extreme cold, also have adapted to live in coastal waters, non-coastal waters

• Depending on their location they have adapted to the food sources, the waters, temperature, some mainly eat turtles, some mainly eat dolphins, some mainly eat fish, some mainly eat seal

• Save protein in their bodies from past meals

• Are found in waters all across the world, in large pods or small

Describe any example of your organism participating in a symbiotic relationship. This includes:mutualism, parasitism, commensalism

*Meaning of Barnacles : underwater living organism that permanently attaches itself to a variety of objects below the surface. This organism feeds by filtering particles of the water by using their legs*

Orca whales and Barnacles have a symbiotic relationship that falls under the commensalism categories. Which means that one organism( Barnacles ) benefits off the other ( Orca Whale )  leaving the other organism un harmful.

What efforts are humans undertaking to help preserve diversity of your species?

• Biggest danger to orca whales are humans

• Water is getting overpopulated with garbage, their prey is becoming overly hunted by humans, there are toxic chemicals within the water, exhaust emission from boats and collisions, the noise underwater being disturbed by vessels, orcas need it to hunt

• Humans are slowly starting to come up with ways to clean the garbage, Ex) Great Pacific Cleanup

• Humans beginning to not overkill certain species of fish or marine life

• Fishing management to allow the orcas to migrate and travel without excess noise

• Fishing being eliminated or reduced in certain areas to not disturb food chain

• Securing disturbance-free refuges

Predation (NOTE: you cannot reuse a fact from somewhere else in this document)

• Orcas only predators are humans

• They are at the top of every food chain/web they are within, excluding humans

• Humans danger orcas by polluting oceans with garbage and toxins, collisions with boats, disturbing the noise underwater, making their prey more scarce by overkilling them, caging them in places like Seaworld where they live half as long as they normally would

• Orcas are known as Apex Predators - meaning they are at the top of the food chain

Why is your species good to help learn about biodiversity?

• Lots of Orcas in the world - one of the most diverse and spread out mammals across the world

• Have evolved from 50 million years ago

• ⅔ of the earth is covered in ocean

• Members of the same species that live in different places around the world, indifferent environments that help them look different and act different

• Genetically modified their own bodies to be able to adapt to any climate and conditions 

• Help maintain a stable food chain - ensure no animals overpopulate

• Help regulate the oceans ecosystem by making sure certain animal species don’t overpopulate the ocean

• Orcas have different environments that cause them to look and act different

• Orcas have different behaviours depending on where it’s habitat is (cold, warm) 

Ex) 4 types of orcas in antarctic waters depending on where they live in the water