Killer Whales Breeding

A killer whale has to be at least 10 - 15 years old and possibly as old as 17 years old, before it is able to breed. Killer whales probably choose their mates when tow or more family pods gather together to form a superpod. These superpods can stay together for several minutes or hours at a time.

When different killer whale pods go their separate ways, the newly pregnant female killer whales are left to carry and look after the calves on their own. The male killer whale fathers probably will never meet their calves and do not play any part in raising the baby killer whales.

The gestation period is thought to be about 15 months after which a single young is born. A young killer whale is called a calf, and when born, is already one-third the size of its mother. They can grow to weigh between 2.5 and 9 tonnes. Females tend to live longer than males.

Group cooperation extends to care of the young, which will continue to suckle from the mother for an extended period of up to two years. The breeding season is variable, as is the interval between births. This latter period can be as little as three years or as long as eight.

When do female Killer Whales stop breeding?

A female killer whale has a new calf roughly every 5 years until she is about 40 years old. However, a few female killer whales keep on producing killer whale calves until they are well into their fifties. A female killer whale typically has about 6 calves in her lifetime.