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93 free Orcas trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
10 free orcas trivia questions with answers. Dive into the fascinating world of orcas with our comprehensive trivia quiz! These intelligent marine mammals are among the ocean's most remarkable predators, and there's much to learn about their behavior, intelligence, and unique hunting strategies. Test your knowledge with our 93-question quiz and discover how much you really know about killer whales.
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Q 01Orcas are the largest members of which animal family?
Delphinidae
Despite their common name 'killer whale,' orcas are actually the largest species within the oceanic dolphin family, Delphinidae.
Q 02What is the genus name for orcas?
Orcinus
Orcinus is the orca's genus, with Orcinus orca its only living species; the name is usually glossed as 'belonging to Orcus', the Roman god of the underworld.
Q 03How long does the average wild male orca live?
30 years
30 years is the average lifespan of a wild male orca, though some reach 50 or 60; females average about 50 years and the oldest known have passed 80.
Q 04What is the grey marking just behind an orca's dorsal fin called?
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 photographs.
Q 05What is the technique called when Antarctic orcas swim in formation to wash seals off ice floes?
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 water, where other orcas wait.
Q 06Biogeographers use which term for a species like the orca whose range covers most of the Earth?
Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan species live in every ocean from the Arctic to the Antarctic; orcas sit alongside the blue whale, the great white shark and the peregrine falcon as textbook examples.
Q 07What is the approximate gestation period for an orca calf?
15-18 months
Orcas have one of the longest gestation periods among marine mammals, typically lasting between 15 to 18 months.
Q 08What global status does the IUCN Red List give the orca?
Data Deficient
In 2008 the IUCN moved orcas from 'conservation dependent' to 'data deficient', since one or more orca types may be separate, endangered species.
Q 09In what kind of social structure do orcas primarily live?
Stable matrilineal pods
Stable matrilineal pods are right: a pod is a set of related matrilines led by older females that travel and hunt together, and a resident matriline can span four generations.
Q 10A tagged sub-Antarctic orca feeding on toothfish was recorded diving closest to which depth?
1,000 meters (3,300 feet)
1,000 meters (3,300 feet) is closest: the tagged orca reached 1,087 meters while taking toothfish, roughly 300 meters deeper than any orca dive logged before it.
Q 11Why did sailors give orcas the menacing common name 'killer whale'?
They saw them hunt larger whales
They saw them hunt larger whales, and the name was originally closer to 'whale killer'; orcas are actually the largest dolphins.
Q 12Which naturalist first formally described the orca, in the 1758 edition of Systema Naturae?
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus named the orca Delphinus orca in the 1758 tenth edition of Systema Naturae, the work that founded modern zoological nomenclature.
Q 13How many fatal orca attacks on humans have been recorded in the wild, as opposed to at marine parks?
None
Q 21A captive orca at Marineland of Canada learned to catch what by regurgitating fish as bait?
Seagulls
Other orcas in the tank copied the trick.
Q 22What top speed can orcas reach?
About 56 km/h
About 56 km/h is right: orcas have been clocked at roughly 56 km/h (35 mph) in short bursts, among the fastest speeds of any marine mammal.
Q 23Which feature of resident orca society is rare among mammals?
Both sexes stay with their mothers for life
Both sexes stay with their mothers for life among resident orcas: males leave only briefly to mate with females from other pods and then return to their mother's matriline.
None in the wild; captive orcas, by contrast, have killed several handlers at marine parks.
Q 14How tall is the dorsal fin of an adult male orca?
About 1.8 metres
About 1.8 metres is right: an adult male's dorsal fin can reach 1.8 m (6 ft), more than twice the height of a female's, which is shorter and more curved.
Q 15What is the minimum worldwide orca population suggested by a 2006 consensus estimate?
50,000
50,000 is right: the 2006 estimate put the global minimum at about 50,000 orcas, roughly 25,000 of them in Antarctic waters.
Q 16Which salmon species dominates the diet of northeast Pacific resident orcas?
Chinook
Chinook is right: the largest and fattiest Pacific salmon makes up roughly two-thirds of the salmon that northeast Pacific resident orcas eat, while sockeye and pink are barely taken.
Q 17What is it called when orcas herd herring into a tight ball with bubbles and flashes of their white undersides?
Carousel feeding
Carousel feeding ends with tail slaps on the ball and the stunned fish eaten one by one.
Q 18Orcas kill great white sharks by flipping them onto their backs, inducing what paralysed state?
Tonic immobility
Tonic immobility is right: turning a shark belly-up sends it into a trance-like state in which it stops moving, leaving the orca free to feed.
Q 19Between 2019 and 2021, orcas off Western Australia were recorded killing which giant animal?
Blue whales
Blue whales is right: researchers documented three successful orca hunts of blue whales off Bremer Bay, Western Australia, in 2019 and 2021, one victim estimated at 18 to 22 metres long.
Q 20Off Península Valdés in Argentina, orcas do what to snatch sea lions in the shallows?
Beach themselves temporarily
Beach themselves temporarily, then wriggle back to sea; beaching is normally fatal to cetaceans and takes the young years of practice.
Q 24What was the name of the only orca recorded as permanently separated from its resident family group?
Luna
Luna became famous for seeking out humans and boats in Nootka Sound.
Q 25Orcas are among the very few animals that go through what?
Menopause
Menopause is right: female orcas stop breeding around age 40 yet can live decades longer, and these post-reproductive grandmothers lead their pods to salmon.
Q 26How old was the southern resident orca Granny (J2) estimated to be at her death?
105
105 is right: Granny (J2) was presumed dead in late 2016 with an estimated birth year of 1911, though a later biopsy-based study suggested she was only 65 to 80.
Q 27Which Roman writer gave the first written description of an orca, around AD 70?
Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder is right: his Natural History, finished around AD 77, calls the orca 'an enormous mass of flesh armed with savage teeth' and recounts one killed in Ostia harbour under Claudius.
Q 28Which people's mythology tells of orcas living in houses and towns under the sea?
The Haida
The Haida is right: Haida mythology tells of orcas living in houses and towns beneath the sea and regards them as the most powerful animals in the ocean.
Q 29Since 2020, orcas off the Iberian coast have repeatedly damaged boats by targeting which part?
The rudder
The rudder is right: since 2020 Iberian orcas have rammed and bitten the rudders of yachts, disabling their steering and sinking several boats off Spain and Portugal.
Q 30What was the name of the southern resident orca harpooned off Saturna Island in 1964, whose captivity transformed public attitudes?
Moby Doll
Moby Doll is right: harpooned in 1964 as a model for a Vancouver Aquarium sculpture, he survived 87 days in captivity and proved docile, never trying to attack his handlers.