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4Ux
4Ux
Budgerigar or Budgie are also called Parakeets in the USA and also known as the English Parakeet.
None are native to UK and are only kept as pets or in wildlife parks/zoos. Interestingly the Ringneck Parakeet was either released or escaped into the wilds of London and there is now quite a flock who live there and expanding. Although they are not native to UK they are certainly thriving.
Budgerigars are native to Australia.
4Ux
Orca aka Killer Whale
16 – There are 52 Orcas in captivity all over the world
Killer whales, more properly known as orcas, have been kept in captivity since 1961, helpless victims of a blatantly commercial experiment which has seen dozens of wild orcas plucked from their families and forced to live in artificial social groupings which bear scant resemblance to their natural order.
As of August 2014, there were fifty-two killer whales held in captivity in eight countries. Twenty-eight of them were in the United States. Of these killer whales, eighteen were captured from the wild and thirty-four were born and raised in captivity.17 – In the wild, they can live between 50 and 80 years.
One female orca even lived to 103 ! In captivity, however, orcas’ life expectancies are cut short. In captivity, they tend to die young – in their 30s.18 – They can control the flow of blood to their organs
Indeed, Orcas are able to control the flow of blood to their hearts and brains, which keeps them from suffering from a lack of oxygen when they are deep underwater.19 – They spend most of their time looking for food
Orcas spend 60% of their time foraging for food. They do not migrate, but they have been known to travel hundreds of miles to find fresh food that is in “season”20 – They are very fast swimmers
Orcas are among the fastest swimming marine mammals. They can swim as fast as 48 kph (30 mph), but they usually cruise at much slower speeds, about 3-10 kph (2-6 mph)!
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9 – There is more than one type of Orcas
Orcas were long considered one species, but now it appears that there are several species (or at least, subspecies—researchers are still figuring this out) of orcas. As researchers learn more about orcas, they have proposed separating the whales into different species or subspecies based on genetics, diet, size, vocalizations, location and physical appearance.
In the Southern Hemisphere, proposed species include those referred to as Type A (Antarctic), large type B (pack ice killer whale), small Type B (Gerlache killer whale), Type C (Ross Sea killer whale), and Type D (Subantarctic killer whale).
In the Northern Hemisphere, proposed types include resident killer whales, Bigg’s (transient) killer whales, offshore killer whales, and Type 1 and 2 Eastern North Atlantic killer whales.
Determining species of killer whales is important not only in gaining information about the whales but in protecting them—it is difficult to determine the abundance of killer whales without even knowing how many species there are.10 – Orcas have the 2nd heaviest brain among marine mammals
Neuroscientist Lori Marino and a team of researchers explored the brain of a dead killer whale with an MRI and found an astounding potential for intelligence.
Killer whales, or orcas, have the second-biggest brains among all ocean mammals, weighing as much as 15 pounds. It’s not clear whether they are as well-endowed with memory cells as humans, but scientists have found they are amazingly well-wired for sensing and analyzing their watery, three-dimensional environment.
Scientists are trying to better understand how killer whales are able to learn local dialects, teach one another specialized methods of hunting and pass on behaviors that can persist for generations — longer possibly than seen with any other species except humans.
These researchers have yet to find evidence that an orca in the wild has ever killed a person.
But they aren’t surprised that the world’s biggest, most powerful and possibly smartest predator, captured and kept for years in a tank, far too tiny & cut off from the influences of an extended family, could have a fatal encounter with a human.
Caged and captured Orcas have killed their trainers, probably from boredom, lack of stimulation, kept in cruel conditions, treated cruelly, anger from their treatment etc.. Orcas need to be free and live with their own families in the sea.11 – A female Orca gives birth to 1 calf every five years, and she averages 5 calves per lifetime
Female orcas give birth every three to ten years. The gestation period is very long, and it lasts for 15-18 months and births occur in any part of the year, but most often occur in the winter season in their respective regions.
Studies say that 50% of females do not reproduce once they are close to turning 40 years old, and those living in the North Pacific do not usually reproduce after age 46.12 – Killer whales have around 45 teeth (each around 7.6 centimeters long)
They are shaped for ripping and tearing prey. Instead of chewing their food, they take one big gulp – and believe it or not, these brilliant beasts can swallow small seals and sea lions whole! Bigger prey is ripped into chunks before being eaten.13 – Killer Whales eat sharks
They are known to hunt and consume shark meat when they are having difficulty finding other less defensible prey. In fact killer whales have also been known to hunt variety of marine mammals including some of the biggest known whales.14 – Orcas cannot smell
Orcas do not have smelling organs or a lobe of the brain dedicated to smelling, so it is believed that they cannot smell. They do, however, have good senses of sight and hearing. They can hear better than dogs and even bats.
Using this excellent sense of hearing, killer whales practice echolocation. This means that killer whales produce sounds and then listen to the echoes. In this way, they can tell if objects or other animals are near or far, and just exactly how near or far.15 – They can sleep with one eye open
Like other dolphins, Orcas cannot completely go to sleep, because they have to go up to the surface to breathe every now and then. Instead, they sleep with just half of their brains. If a killer whale’s left eye is open, that means the right side of its brain is awake and the other asleep, and vice versa.
