Leah's weekend report part 2: killer whales

I watched a show called "Call of the Killer Whales" by Jean Michal
Cousteau: Ocean Adventures on PBS. Killer whales are also called orcas.
They are a type of dolphin. Males can weigh up to 9 tons and be 32 feet
long. They are very powerful, social, and intelligent animals. They
have different cultures depending on where they live. Some stay in the
same "pod" or herd all of their lives but some travel. The males always
do what their moms say, though. They eat what their mom told them to,
so if their habitat changes, it's very difficult for them to find food
to eat. They find their food a very special way called echolocation.
How it works is the whale makes a sound and hears the echoes and it can
tell how the sound bounces and where things are.
Now we don't think orcas should be kept in captivity, but they used
to be caught to learn to do tricks in shows. An orca named Keiko was a
movie star in the movie "Free Willy". People thought that Keiko should
be free too. It took several years to teach him how to catch his own
food and be safe in the ocean, but he never did learn how to join a pod.
Orcas eat lots of kinds of ocean animals. A group of 20 orcas will
work together to kill a big gray whale and then share the food. They
will work together to rock a piece of ice with a seal on it to knock the
seal into the water so they can catch it. They can catch sea lion pups
right on the shore without getting stranded themselves.
There are people that rescue stranded orcas. There are stories that
dolphins will push people to shore to save them -- now people also
rescue the orcas.
Your reporter,
Leah Sinclair
PS: I'll see you at school Monday afternoon. My mom says the link to
the blog you gave her on March 7 no longer works so she hopes using this
e mail address will work too.