Killer Whales Communications

Killer whale calves have to learn hot ot communicate with other killer whales in thier pods. Killer whales are always talking to one another using a variety of whilstling sounds, screams, adn sqeals. We do not undersand what the diffrent sounds mean, so we do not know what th ey are saying. If one killwe whale uses a particular call, another killer whale may respond with exactly the same call.

Killer Whales Dialects

Each killer whale pod has its own special range of calls. This is known as a killer whale "dialect". The killer whale calf will speak exactly the same dialect asn its killer whale mother and its other close relatives in the pod. Killer whales often call to one another when they are travelling.

Killer Whales Sounds

Killer whales make sounds while going about their various activities. For example, killer whales make sounds which they use the echos to locate food and other ocean objects. Often, killer whales make call sounds to communicate with other killer whales.

The forehead of a killer whale is used to generate the wide variety of sounds the killer whale is capable of producing. Sounds are generated when the killer whale forces air in and out of the complex network of passages and cavities in the forehead. The sounds killer whales make vary widely from population to population. Resident killer whales, for example, make different sounds from transient killer whales and offshore killer whales. Transient killer whales make significantly less noises than resident killer whales because they normally do not use sound while finding thier food.

Resident killer whales will send out calls to other resident killer whales and use sonar clicks to locate their prey. Transient killer whales, on the other hand, usually hunt silently, listening and looking for their prey. It is speculated that the reason for this is that the dolphins, porpoises, seals, and sea lions that constitute the transient killer whale 's primary prey could recognize transient calls and thereby the transient killer whales won't have the element of surprise. Therefore, transient killer whales usually make noises after the attack.