Species: Pseudorca crassidens
False Killer Whale
Species
Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
Classification
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Craniata
Class
Mammalia
Order
Cetacea
Family
Delphinidae
Genus
Pseudorca
NatureServe
Classification
Other Global Common Names
Orca Falsa, Falsa Ballena Asesina - pseudorque
Informal Taxonomy
Animals, Vertebrates - Mammals - Whales and Dolphins
Formal Taxonomy
Animalia - Craniata - Mammalia - Cetacea - Delphinidae - Pseudorca
Ecology and Life History
Habitat Type Description
Marine
Migration
false - false - false - May make seasonal migrations into northern Pacific waters during spring-summer warming (Leatherwood and Reeves 1983).
Non-migrant
false
Locally Migrant
false
Food Comments
Diet mainly squid and large fishes (Stacey et al. 1994), including some obtained from fishing lines. May attack dolphins released from purse seines in eastern tropical Pacific (Leatherwood and Reeves 1983).
Reproduction Comments
Protracted breeding season, reportedly with no fixed breeding or calving season, though a peak in calving in March was found off Japan. Gestation lasts about 15-16 months. Lactation lasts apparently about 18 months. Sexually mature at about 3.2-3.8 m (Leatherwood and Reeves 1983), probably at a minimum age of 8 years (IUCN 1991, Stacey et al. 1994). Off Japan, the average interval between births has been estimated at about 7 years, with females over 45 years old post-reproductive (see Stacey et al. 1994). May live several decades.
Ecology Comments
Gregarious, often in herds of >100 individuals; mean group size off Japan was 55; group size from 14 mass strandings (not uncommon) averaged 180 (50-835). Herds usually include both sexes and all age classes (or minus males in the late maturing stage) and appear to be socially cohesive. Often associates with other cetaceans (Leatherwood and Reeves 1983).
Length
550
Conservation Status
NatureServe Global Status Rank
G4
Global Status Last Reviewed
1997-04-09
Global Status Last Changed
1997-04-09
Distribution
Conservation Status Map
<img src="http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/servlet/GetMapGif?US.FL=SNR&US.GA=__&US.NC=__&US.OR=__&US.SC=SNR&US.TX=S1" alt="Conservation Status Map" style="width: 475px; height: auto;" />
Global Range
H - >2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles) - H - Widely distributed, though apparently nowhere abundant, in tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate waters throughout the world. In the U.S. they occur in Hawaii, along the entire West Coast, and from the Mid-Atlantic coastal states south.
Global Range Code
H
Global Range Description
>2,500,000 square km (greater than 1,000,000 square miles)