
Photo: (c) Jan Ebr & Ivana Ebrová, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY 4.0 (May be cropped or resized)
Pseudorca crassidens
Diet
Mainly squid and fish; sometimes other dolphins
Habitat
Oceans worldwide, mainly tropical; deep offshore water
Range
Oceans worldwide, mainly in tropical regions
Gestation period
About 15 months
Size
Females up to 4.5–5m; males up to 6m
Weight
Females up to 1,200kg; males up to 2,200kg
The false killer whale is a large oceanic dolphin, the fourth largest after the orca and the two pilot whales. It is black or dark grey, slightly lighter below, with a slender body, an elongated tapered head with no beak, a sickle-shaped dorsal fin and narrow, pointed flippers with a distinctive bulge on the leading edge. Females reach 4.5–5 m and 1,200 kg, and males 6 m and 2,200 kg. Its name comes from a skull that resembles the orca's (Wikipedia, general species account).
It is highly sociable and forms pods of up to 50, sometimes together with other dolphin species such as the common bottlenose dolphin. It typically eats squid and fish but has been known to eat other dolphins. It is a deep diver, with a maximum known depth of 927.5 m, and a fast swimmer at around 30 km/h. Gestation takes about 15 months. It is threatened by fishing operations, as it can become entangled in fishing gear (Wikipedia, general species account).