Q 01/05

Orcas are the largest members of which animal family?

A) Phocoenidae

B) Balaenidae

C) Physeteridae

D) Delphinidae

Answer · why

D) Delphinidae

Delphinidae, the oceanic dolphins, also takes in pilot whales and false killer whales, which are dolphins too despite the 'whale' in their common name...

Q 02/05

What is the genus name for orcas?

A) Delphinus

B) Tursiops

C) Orcinus

D) Orcaella

Answer · why

C) Orcinus

Orcinus has a single living species, Orcinus orca, although a 2024 study argued that the North Pacific's fish-eating residents and mammal-hunting tran...

Q 03/05

What happens to an orca's heart rate when it dives?

A) It doubles

B) It rises slightly

C) It stays level

D) It halves

Answer · why

D) It halves

It halves: one study measured roughly 60 beats a minute at the surface and 30 under water, a response that saves oxygen for the heart, lungs and brain...

Q 04/05

What is the grey marking just behind an orca's dorsal fin called?

A) Saddle patch

B) Eye patch

C) Fluke mark

D) Blaze

Answer · why

A) Saddle patch

The saddle patch is the grey marking behind the dorsal fin; its shape, together with nicks in the fin, lets researchers identify individual orcas from...

Q 05/05

Which technique has Antarctic orcas swimming side by side at an ice floe to knock a seal into the sea?

A) Bubble-net feeding

B) Wave-hunting

C) Skim feeding

D) Tail-slapping

Answer · why

B) Wave-hunting

Wave-hunting, also called wave-washing, is right: Antarctic pack-ice orcas swim abreast toward a floe to raise a wave that washes the seal into the wa...