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Each family of killer whales has its own language.

Do you know how you recognize the voices of your family among a hundred people? Killer whales do the same thing—only underwater. Scientists have recorded over 100 years of their «conversations» and discovered that each family (called a «pod») has its own unique set of sounds. Its own language!

The dialect of one family differs from another as Ukrainian from Polish. If a young orca moves to a neighboring family, at first it is «not understood.» It has to learn new sounds. A mother orca teaches her calf her language for 7 years — this is the longest childhood among all marine animals!

Killer whales are the most intelligent predators in the ocean. Their brains are 4 times heavier than a human's - about 6 kilograms. They know how to work in a team: one group of killer whales figured out how to create a wave with their tails to throw a seal off an ice floe. Another group hunts for herring, driving it into a shiny ball. Different families have different "professions", just like human families.

Killer whales recognize themselves in the mirror (few animals can do this!), take care of their grandmothers — they even have grandmother killer whales who live to be 90 and lead families. And killer whales have never attacked a person in the open ocean in history. They seem to know: we are smart too.

The next time you see an orca in a movie, listen to its voice. You might hear words that only its mother knows.