Orcas have evolved to swim as far as 40 miles in one day to forage for food, exercise, and socialize. In addition to swimming, killer whales will dive several times per day to depths of 100 to 500 feet below the water's surface. They are naturally inclined to travel far and dive deep, which is part of the reason killer whales often struggle in captivity, where tanks can't grant the same range and the mammals sometimes develop boredom and stress due to repetitive activities.
Mothers carry their babies in utero for a 17-month gestation period, and they give birth every three to 10 years until becoming menopausal around age 40. They are exceptionally protective of their offspring, and often adolescent females are recruited to assist in caring for calves. Mothers will nurse their babies for up to two years, forming a bond so strong that if a mother dies, the mortality rate of her sons increases. Orcas are some of the affected mammals in the ocean due to pollution, and the contaminants make their way into breastmilk, increasing the mortality rate of all young to 50% within the first year.
Killer whales hunt in pods, similar to a wolf pack, which is how they earned the moniker "wolves of the sea." A pod is a family group of up to 40 individual orcas and they prey on a variety on animals, using different techniques to capture them. While resident pods will focus on fish, transient pods are typically on the hunt for larger marine mammals.
Orcas work cooperatively to herd fish into a compact area where they're easier to consume. If they're after penguins, sea lions, or other animals on the surface, the killer whales will slap their tails on the water, creating a large wave that sends their prey off ice floes and within reach. Pods of orcas can take down something as large as a blue whale by surrounding it, then chasing and biting at the mammal until it weakens enough to be ripped apart and eaten.
As social creatures, orcas value sharing their hunt and females will share all the fish they catch with their offspring. Males, however, will only give away about 15% of their catch, typically shared with their mothers.
The distinct black-and-white patterning of the orca - back body, white underside, white patches above and behind the eyes, and a saddle patch behind the dorsal fin - serves a unique purpose. Creatures looking down on the killer whale, from a perch like an ice floe, may not see it because the black back will blend in with dark ocean waters. The white belly can camouflage into light streaming from the sky toward the sea, which also makes the orca difficult to pick out from beneath. The effect allows killer whales to sneak up on unsuspecting prey.
Orcas were named killer whales by ancient sailors, who observed pods of the mammal hunting down prey and taking out larger whales at sea. They were often called "whale killer," which eventually became "killer whale." However, the orca is not a whale at all, but is actually part of the dolphin family, Delphinidae. They are the only species in their specific genus, but are most closely related to dolphins from Australia and South East Asia.
The orca is an apex predator, meaning it's at the top of its food chain and has no immediate threat as one of the largest and most powerful aquatic animals. However, the species is still threatened by environmental concerns, such as fishing equipment discarded or lost at sea like nets that pose entanglement dangers, chemicals that don't break down in nature and become stored in the fatty tissue of the orcas when they digest contaminated food, and shock waves from underwater explosives or military sonar that can cause orca blood vessels to burst and hemorrhage.
As social animals, orcas rely on a system of communication tools to talk with members of their pods, navigate the ocean, and hunt. On the surface, they use body language like breaching, slapping their flippers or tail, or bringing their head out of the water. Each population of killer whales has its own unique language, developed over millions of years, and made up of a series of whistles, clicks, pulsed calls, low-frequency pops, and jaw claps made by forcing air through the nasal passages and amplifying the sound through the fatty area of their heads, commonly referred to as the melon. When receiving sound, the orca uses its jaw - sound waves from echolocution travel from the jaw to the inner ear and then to the brain, where a detailed image is created. Their echolocution is considered the most powerful and most sophisticated of any animal.
In fact, the social status of a killer whale could be a matter of life and death - particularly for males living off the Pacific coast of North America, where populations of Chinook salmon dip lower due to fluctuations in temperature due to El Niño and the fishing industry. Males who are nearer to the centre of the social framework of the pod have a mortality rate 67% lower than those on the social sidelines, who are not as connected and may not know where salmon are located or may be excluded from sharing of prey. These males are more likely to starve when times are tough. However, females do not suffer the same fate no matter what their social status.
About Yale University
Yale University's roots can be traced back to the 1640s, when colonial clergymen led an effort to establish a college in New Haven to preserve the tradition of European liberal education in the New World. This vision was fulfilled in 1701, when the charter was granted for a school “wherein Youth may be instructed in the Arts and Sciences [and] through the blessing of Almighty God may be fitted for Publick employment both in Church and Civil State.” In 1718 the school was renamed “Yale College” in gratitude to the Welsh merchant Elihu Yale, who had donated the proceeds from the sale of nine bales of goods together with 417 books and a portrait of King George I.
Yale College survived the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) intact and, by the end of its first hundred years, had grown rapidly. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries brought the establishment of the graduate and professional schools that would make Yale a true university. The Yale School of Medicine was chartered in 1810, followed by the Divinity School in 1822, the Law School in 1824, and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 1847 (which, in 1861, awarded the first Ph.D. in the United States), followed by the schools of Art in 1869, Music in 1894, Environment in 1900, Nursing in 1923, Drama in 1955, Architecture in 1972, and Management in 1974.
International students have made their way to Yale since the 1830s, when the first Latin American student enrolled. The first Chinese citizen to earn a degree at a Western college or university came to Yale in 1850. Today, international students make up nearly 9 percent of the undergraduate student body, and 16 percent of all students at the University. Yale’s distinguished faculty includes many who have been trained or educated abroad and many whose fields of research have a global emphasis; and international studies and exchanges play an increasingly important role in the Yale College curriculum. The University began admitting women students at the graduate level in 1869, and as undergraduates in 1969.
Yale College was transformed, beginning in the early 1930s, by the establishment of residential colleges. Taking medieval English universities such as Oxford and Cambridge as its model, this distinctive system divides the undergraduate population into twelve separate communities of approximately 450 members each, thereby enabling Yale to offer its students both the intimacy of a small college environment and the vast resources of a major research university. Each college surrounds a courtyard and occupies up to a full city block, providing a congenial community where residents live, eat, socialize, and pursue a variety of academic and extracurricular activities. Each college has a master and dean, as well as a number of resident faculty members known as fellows, and each has its own dining hall, library, seminar rooms, recreation lounges, and other facilities.
Today, Yale has matured into one of the world’s great universities. Its 11,000 students come from all fifty American states and from 108 countries. The 3,200-member faculty is a richly diverse group of men and women who are leaders in their respective fields. The central campus now covers 310 acres (125 hectares) stretching from the School of Nursing in downtown New Haven to tree-shaded residential neighborhoods around the Divinity School. Yale’s 260 buildings include contributions from distinguished architects of every period in its history. Styles range from New England Colonial to High Victorian Gothic, from Moorish Revival to contemporary. Yale’s buildings, towers, lawns, courtyards, walkways, gates, and arches comprise what one architecture critic has called “the most beautiful urban campus in America.” Yale's West Campus, located 7 miles west of downtown New Haven on 136 acres, was acquired in 2007 and includes 1.6 million square
