SAN JUAN ISLAND, WASHINGTON – It’s an image you often see on paintings and wood carvings – a giant totemic killer whale, with the images of sea creatures and faces artistically contained within the ...

Orcas have long been revered for their intelligence, adaptability, and group-hunting strategies. But one scientific review spanning two decades has revealed a little-known, yet intriguing behavior.

While orcas, also known as "killer whales," are a common sight in the northeast Pacific Ocean, they’re rarely detected in the ...

Killer whales have been spotted hunting down dolphins - and sharing the catch with pals - for the first time. The dramatic new images of orcas in the Humboldt Current system, off Chile, show them ...

Whales may be known as gentle giants, but they still have a looming presence as the world’s loudest and largest animals. The Antarctic blue whale can weigh up to 400,000 pounds and stretches to 98 ...

A killer whale hunts and eats a great white shark within two minutes in an “astonishing” attack. Scientists have described the orca’s attack as “unprecedented”, showing the exceptional predatory ...

The endangered whales face multiple threats, from a lack of their primary food, chinook salmon, to underwater noise from vessels that makes it harder to hunt, as well as pollution and inbreeding.

John Ford still recalls the first time he heard them. He’d been puttering around the Deserters Group archipelago, a smattering of spruce- and cedar-choked islands in Queen Charlotte Strait, between ...

Marine biologists have documented a remarkable hunting strategy employed by killer whales in the southern Gulf of California, in which they harvest whale sharks' organs. Researchers in Mexico have ...

This article was originally featured on Hakai Magazine, an online publication about science and society in coastal ecosystems. Read more stories like this at hakaimagazine.com. John Ford still recalls ...