Marine Biologist Explains a Killer Whale's Superpower: Echolocation

A marine biologist dives into the incredible science behind orca echolocation and how they use this superpower to detect prey from hundreds of feet away.

00:00 - What is Echolocation?
02:14 - How Do Whales Use Echolocation?
04:12 - Southern Resident Killer Whales and Chinook Salmon
06:47 - Bigg's Killer Whales Go Into Stealth Mode
07:27 - Can Sperm Whales Click You Inside Out?
08:17 - How Noise Pollution Affects Whales

Learn more about whale vocalizations and orca echolocation!
The Orcas Who Eat Shark Livers →    • Orca Caught on Film Absolutely Destro...  
Can AI Translate Whale Songs? →    • Scientists Use AI to Translate the La...  
Mysterious Deep Sea Sounds Identified as Whales →    • Unidentified Deep Sea Sounds Finally ...  

Toothed whales create a focused beam of high-frequency clicks when they hunt. When the sound waves hit an object, the echoes bounce back to the whale like the active sonar of a submarine. This ability doesn’t just allow the whales to locate an object but identify it as well. This is really important because dolphins and whales are extremely picky eaters. For example, salmon makes up nearly 100% of the southern resident killer whale diet and Chinook salmon in particular. Using echolocation, the southern resident killer whales can tell the difference between coho, sockeye, and Chinook salmon based on the salmon’s swim bladder. Other possible cues include the swimming behavior, their depth in the water column, and even the habitat. Chinook salmon have been observed hiding in rocky crevices from foraging killer whales. So orcas could also use their echolocation on the underwater topography to look for those crevices.

One of the main takeaways from all of these studies is just how important sound is to a whale’s survival. Unfortunately, the ocean isn’t a quiet place. Human generated noise pollution from commercial shipping is quite literally putting the lives of whales and dolphins at risk.

Sources
[1] https://www.researchgate.net/figure/M...
[2] https://seaworld.org/animals/all-abou...
[3] https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/featur...
[4] https://courses.washington.edu/fish53...
[5] https://www.nature.com/articles/srep2...
[6] https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2...
[7] https://www.livescience.com/38087-can...
[8] https://www.nathab.com/blog/mammals-i...
[9] https://www.nepa.navy.mil/About-NEPA-...
[10] https://labdownunder.com/picky-bottle...
[11] https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...
[12] https://www.nbcnews.com/sciencemain/k...
[13] https://scienceline.org/2008/05/ask-l...
[14] https://royalsocietypublishing.org/do...
[15] https://wdfw.wa.gov/newsroom/news-rel...
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Music
Cody Martin - soundstripe.com

Other Videos
[1] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
[2] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
[3]    • Inside the Navy’s marine mammal program  
[4]    • University of Washington Campus Tour  
[5]    • Dolphin Research Center Echolocation  
[6]    • Orca Grandmother Defeats Great White ...  

Additional Images
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