Sandra Markle - Ranger Rick: I Wish I Was an Orca

What if you wished you were an orca?
Then you became an orca.
(An orca is an amazing kind of whale!)
Could you eat like an orca?
Sleep like an orca?
Live in an orca family?
And would you want to?
Find out!

Where would you live?
Orcas live in oceans
around the world,
even in the waters by Antarctica.

Would you like to
live in the ocean?

Some orcas feed on only fish.
They usually find enough
to eat close to shore.
Others feed on seals and whales
that travel through the ocean.
Those orcas may feed near shore.
More often their food chase
takes them farther.

What would your family be like?
Orcas live in groups.
Each group is called a pod.
Pods are made up
of several families.
Orcas stay with their pod
their whole lives.

Would you have fun
living in a pod?

An orca dives as it swims.
It often comes to the surface,
because it breathes air.
An orca breathes through a blowhole
on top of its head.
Muscles keep the blowhole closed
when the orca is underwater.

How would you learn to be an orca?
A younger calf swims
alongside its mother.
Orca calves learn
by copying what the adults do.

A calf learns to poke its head
up out of the water.
Thats called spy- hopping.
Orcas spy- hop to see whats
above the water.

Young calves practice leaping
out of the water.
Leaping helps orcas swim fast.

Older calves play together.
They leap over one another.
They also play
by pushing their tails up
and slapping them down hard.
SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH!

How would you talk?
Orcas talk with clicks.
They also whistle and squeak.
Each pod has its own way
of using sounds to talk.
Calves copy their mothers
to learn to talk to their pod.

What if your family
had its own special
way of talking?

Pods use teamwork to hunt.
Calves join in to learn what to do.
Sometimes orcas use
their clicking sounds to hunt.
Sound waves hit schools of fish
and bounce back as echoes.
Thats how orcas hunt in dark waters.

Would it be handy to use
echoes to find objects
you couldnt see?

What would you eat?
A calf drinks its mothers milk
for the first two years of its life.
The rich milk helps the calf
grow a layer of fat called blubber.
The blubber keeps an orca warm
in cold ocean waters.

Orca calves have a full set of teeth
when they are born.
Each tooth is long and sharp.
Calves will use these teeth
to catch food when they are older.
Orcas share meals.
Food sharing is a big part
of being a family.

If you ate like an orca,
what food would you miss?

Where would you sleep?
Orcas sleep in the ocean.
While resting, orcas swim slowly
and stay close to each other.

When an orca rests,
only half of its brain goes to sleep.
The other half stays alert
so the whale can swim to the surface
to breathe while it is sleeping.

Would you like to swim
while you sleep?

How would growing up change you?
As the calves get older,
they grow bigger.
Males grow to around
feet (6.7 meters) long.
Females are usually a little smaller.

Would you like to
grow up that fast?