Orcinus orca ( Linnaeus, 1758 )

Jo, Yeong-Seok, Baccus, John T. & Koprowski, John L., 2018, Mammals of Korea: a review of their taxonomy, distribution and conservation status, Zootaxa 4522 (1), pp. 1-216 : 140

Orcinus orca ( Linnaeus, 1758) —Killer Whale, orca

Delphinus orca Linnaeus, 1758 p.77 ; Type locality- eastern North Atlantic (European Seas).

Orca ater Cope, 1869 p.22; Type locality- North Pacific (Oregon to Aleutian Islands).

Orca pacifica Gray, 1870 p.76; Type locality- North Pacific .

Orcinus orca: Kuroda, 1938 p.18 ; Won, 1958 p.435; Won, 1967 p.85; Won, 1968 p.227; Kim et al., 2000 p.84; Kim, 2004 p.237.

Range: Incidental catches of O. orca occurred in the East Sea and around Jeju Island ( Cetacean Research Institute 2007; Fig. 93 ).

Remarks: The killer whale, an abundant, highly social species with reduced genetic variation, has no consistent geographical pattern of global diversity and no mtDNA variation within regional populations ( Hoelzel et al. 2002). Because of range-wide low genetic diversity, the killer whale remains a monotypic species, even though two subspecies (resident killer whale and transient killer whale or Bigg’s killer whale) or three ecotypes have been proposed ( Reeves & Read 2003; Morin et al. 2010). Compared to Antarctic and eastern North Pacific populations, which have three well-described ecotypes ( Stevens et al. 1989; Pitman & Ensor 2003), populations of O. orca in the western North Pacific have been poorly studied. Both specialized piscivorous resident and mammal eating transient ecotypes inhabit the western North Pacific Ocean ( Burdin et al. 2007; Pilot et al. 2010; Morin et al. 2010); the ecotype inhabiting seas around Korea remains uncertain.

Figures

FIGURE 93. Range map of Orcinus orca in Korea.