Orca
Orcinus orca
- Size
- Up to 9m long
- Look for it
- May to September
- Where
- Every ocean, but most of all in cold polar seas
A powerful black and white whale with a tall fin on its back. It is the biggest member of the dolphin family.
The orca that follows you
This page is a polar sea, with ice floes drifting on it. Move your pointer across the water and your animal will swim after you. Choose a different animal at the bottom, and tap the notes to open them.
The Greenland Sea right now checking the sky…
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01 · FamilyA giant dolphin
Orcas are also called killer whales, but they are really the largest of the dolphins.
02 · PodsFamily for life
Orcas live in family groups called pods, led by the oldest female. Many stay with their mothers all their lives.
03 · HuntClever hunters
A pod works as a team. Some make waves together to wash a seal off an ice floe.
04 · VoiceFamily dialects
Each pod has its own set of calls, a little like a local accent.
05 · FinA fin as tall as a person
A big male's back fin can stand nearly two metres high.
06 · TopNothing hunts them
Orcas are at the top of the food chain. Even great white sharks keep out of their way.
Meet them all
Who's who in the polar seas
Narwhal
Monodon monoceros
- Size
- Body up to 5m, plus a tusk up to 3m
- Look for it
- June to September
- Where
- Arctic seas round Greenland, Canada and Russia
A mottled grey Arctic whale. The male has a single long, spiralled tusk.
Beluga whale
Delphinapterus leucas
- Size
- About 4 to 5m long
- Look for it
- June to September
- Where
- Arctic and sub-Arctic seas and river mouths
A pure white whale with a rounded forehead and no fin on its back.
Humpback whale
Megaptera novaeangliae
- Size
- About 14 to 16m long
- Look for it
- June to September
- Where
- Every ocean: feeding in polar seas in summer, breeding in warm seas in winter
A big, dark whale with a knobbly head and flippers a third as long as its body.
Leopard seal
Hydrurga leptonyx
- Size
- About 3m long
- Look for it
- October to December, then January to March
- Where
- The pack ice round Antarctica
A long, lean, spotted seal with a big head and a wide mouth: the top hunter on the Antarctic ice.
Antarctic krill
Euphausia superba
- Size
- About 6cm long
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- The Southern Ocean, in vast swarms
Small, pink, see-through relatives of shrimps. There are more of them, by weight, than almost any other animal.
Through the year
When to look for them
The green months are when each one is easiest to see in polar waters: the northern summer for Arctic animals, the southern summer for Antarctic ones. The animal following you is shown in red.
Orca
Narwhal
Beluga
Humpback whale
Leopard seal
Krill
Good to know
Six things about the polar seas
Frozen sea
Sea water freezes at about minus 2 degrees. The ice that forms doubles the size of Antarctica every winter.
It starts with krill
Tiny plants bloom in the summer light, krill eat the plants, and almost everything else eats the krill.
Coming up for air
Whales and seals are mammals and must breathe air, so they need gaps in the ice.
Blubber
A thick layer of fat under the skin keeps whales and seals warm in water that would kill a person in minutes.
A noisy sea
Sound travels well under water. Whales call to each other over many miles.
Who lives where
Narwhals and belugas live only in the Arctic. Leopard seals live only in the Antarctic. Orcas and humpbacks visit both.
Photo gallery
Real photos of the animals on this page. Tap one to see it bigger.
Orca
Narwhal
Beluga whale
Humpback whale
Leopard seal
Antarctic krill
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons and are used under free licences. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews. Open a photo to see who took it.
Cold water, full of life
Cold water holds more oxygen and more food than warm water. That is why the biggest animals on Earth travel to the ends of it every summer to eat.
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