Killer whale Research > Diet

Killer whale diet (and you thought you were a picky eater!)

Resident and transient forms of killer whales exhibit striking differences in their diet. While residents feed exclusively on Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.), transients only feed on warm-blooded prey – marine mammals in most cases, with the occasional seabird on the menu. In addition, dietary preference varies between different transient populations that choose to feed on different marine mammal species.

By following groups of transients, using acoustic monitoring to record their every kill, attack, and harassment of marine mammals, we are able to acquire a better understanding of the diet composition of the different killer whale populations off the coast of Alaska and British Columbia. This, in turn, will allow us to determine the impact of killer whale predation on marine mammal populations, and to delineate the role of killer whales in the North Pacific ecosystem with greater accuracy.

The following table demonstrates what studies of the dietary preference of transient populations in various locations have revealed so far:

updated 27 February 2006

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