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Orcinus orca

Killer Whale

Orcinus orca, Killer Whale
(c) Sherry Kirkvold, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), uploaded by Sherry Kirkvold · via inaturalist, stored and served from this site
Red List, global
DD
Data Deficient, 2017
First CITES listing
II
Appendix II, 1979
CITES trade records
596
1981–2023 · exporter-reported
Unit dimensions
5
reported separately, never summed
NAMMCO catch entries
84
catch records
Seizure records
10
reported taxon matches

One of 43: each square a species, coloured by its latest global Red List category, this one ringed. Killer Whale is among the cetaceans.

In summary derived

Orcinus orca, Killer Whale, is placed in family Delphinidae, order Cetacea, class Mammalia. It was first listed in Appendix II in 1979. The earliest CITES listing row the corpus holds for it is Appendix II, dated 2003, a later entry than the 1979 listing. The corpus records 1 dated listing row in total.

Its latest global Red List assessment is Data Deficient, published 2017. It carries 3 earlier global assessments on the current scale and 2 on scales that were superseded before the current categories and cannot be compared with them. An assessment at Europe scope records Least Concern. This site reports the global category; the two are not interchangeable.

The corpus holds 596 exporter-reported CITES trade records for it, from 1981 to 2023, reported across 5 unit dimensions. The most frequently recorded term is specimens: 252 records across 4 unit dimensions, of which 174 are measured in specimens. NAMMCO records 84 catch entries, from 1992 to 2023, totalling 474 animals reported by NAMMCO member countries, counting each year's area reports, or its national total where the year reports no area. 10 of those entries report no number and are not in that total. Attribution is by the taxon name each report gave. 10 seizure records are attributed to it, being those whose reported taxon matches the species.

Composed from 20 corpus fields, by template, with no model
  • species.class
  • species.family
  • species.order_name
  • species_catch.catch_total
  • species_catch.year
  • species_iucn.is_global
  • species_iucn.scope_code
  • species_iucn.status
  • species_iucn.year_published
  • species_listing.appendix
  • species_listing.listing_date
  • species_listing_event.appendix
  • species_listing_event.event_date
  • species_seizure.*
  • species_trade.dimension
  • species_trade.first_year
  • species_trade.last_year
  • species_trade.record_count
  • species_trade.reporter_type
  • species_trade.term

Each sentence is generated from the columns above and nothing else. The same corpus produces the same text every time. Where a field is absent the sentence is omitted rather than hedged.

Overview curated

Taxonomy entered by a named curator and versioned in the repository.

Class
Mammalia
Order
Cetacea
Family
Delphinidae
First CITES listing
1979
Global Red List status
DDData Deficient, assessed 2017
Regional status (Europe)
LCRegional, 2023. Not the species status.
Content withheld pending expert review

8 narrative sections for this species were machine-drafted and are not shown. No subject expert has reviewed and signed them.

Trade derived

CITES Trade Database v2025.1, extracted 13 June 2025.

There is no single trade total

Quantities are reported per unit dimension, per traded term, and per reporting side. These are not additive: kilograms and individual animals have no common unit, a live animal is not a carving, and an importer report and an exporter report are two accounts of one shipment rather than two shipments.

Figures below are exporter-reported.

count in specimens
508
mass in kg
54
volume in L
30
area in m²
3
packaging in containers
1

Records per dimension. Not additive across units.

Trade over time

listed 19791981: 3 records1983: 1 records1985: 17 records1986: 10 records1987: 9 records1988: 6 records1989: 5 records1990: 3 records1992: 3 records1993: 5 records1994: 5 records1995: 7 records1996: 4 records1997: 7 records1998: 6 records1999: 11 records2000: 7 records2001: 6 records2002: 12 records2003: 13 records2004: 6 records2005: 11 records2006: 25 records2007: 9 records2008: 20 records2009: 17 records2010: 24 records2011: 23 records2012: 40 records2013: 24 records2014: 54 records2015: 45 records2016: 40 records2017: 11 records2018: 9 records2019: 17 records2020: 14 records2021: 7 records2022: 20 records2023: 40 records19801990200020102020
Peak 54 records in 2014. Trade records per year, exporter-reported, every term and unit counted as records, not quantities.
listed 19791983: 1 specimens1985: 125 specimens1986: 62 specimens1987: 20 specimens1988: 4 specimens1989: 16 specimens1990: 2 specimens1993: 9 specimens2002: 12 specimens2006: 11 specimens2008: 10 specimens2009: 12 specimens2010: 12 specimens2011: 12 specimens2012: 23 specimens2013: 5 specimens2014: 38 specimens2015: 29 specimens2016: 18 specimens1980199020002010
Peak 125 specimens in 1985. Quantity of carvings, the term with most records (182), in specimens, exporter-reported. Other terms are in the tables below, each in its own unit.

count measured in specimens

508 of 596 records carry a quantity in specimens. CITES leaves the unit blank to mean a count of the term.

Top 8 of 14. Bars count trade records per term, not specimens, all sources combined; the table splits them by source and gives the quantity in specimens.
TermQuantityRecordsYearsSource
carvings393 specimens1701985–2016W
specimens4,177 specimens1701994–2023W
teeth113 specimens451988–2023W
live19 specimens191993–2018W
teeth43 specimens171995–2023O
bones27 specimens172011–2023O
bones26 specimens91990–2023W
live8 specimens71981–1988not recorded
jewellery11 specimens72016W
carvings13 specimens61983–1989not recorded
live6 specimens61992–2011C
carvings15 specimens62009–2014O

Showing the 12 term and source combinations with the most records, of 27.

mass measured in kg

54 of 596 records carry a quantity in kg.

Bars count trade records per term, not kg, all sources combined; the table splits them by source and gives the quantity in kg.
TermQuantityRecordsYearsSource
specimens649.42 kg381994–2023W
specimens6.03 kg41997–1998U
skins0.02 kg32013–2020W
specimens1.1 kg21987–1988not recorded
specimens0.00300 kg22020F
skins0.04 kg12020F
meat0.00400 kg12017W
skin pieces0.000900 kg12019W
carvings8 kg11995W
teeth0.15 kg12023W

volume measured in L

30 of 596 records carry a quantity in L.

TermQuantityRecordsYearsSource
specimens0.84 L152006–2022W
specimens1.21 L142010–2020F
specimens0.00200 L11996U
2 smaller units: m² (3 records), containers (1 record)

area measured in m²

3 of 596 records carry a quantity in m². Area is the surface of the item traded as the Party reported it, for example a skin sample in square centimetres; every area unit is converted to m².

Bars count trade records per term, not m², all sources combined; the table splits them by source and gives the quantity in m².
TermQuantityRecordsYearsSource
specimens0.00600 m²22003–2006W
skin pieces0.000300 m²12015W

packaging measured in containers

1 of 596 records carry a quantity in containers.

TermQuantityRecordsYearsSource
bones1 container12005O

CITES listings curated

CoP decisions, cross-checked against the appendix reported on trade records.

First listed on 1979-06-28, in Appendix II, from the CITES listing history. The table below holds the species' current listing entries, which begin later; earlier coverage is often under a higher taxon.

DateAppendixAnnotationStatus
2003-02-13II[ORDER listing Cetacea spp.] Included in Appendix II, except for the species included in Appendix I. A zero annual export quota has been established for live specimens from the Black Sea population of Tursiops truncatus removed from the wild and traded for primarily commercial purposes.earliest current entry

Convention on Migratory Species

Listed under CMS: Appendix II. Also covered by ACCOBAMS, ASCOBANS, Pacific Islands Cetaceans, Western African Aquatic Mammals, which are separate instruments with their own annexes.

IUCN Red List derived

Assessment history. Scope is always stated: a regional assessment is not the species status.

This history crosses a criteria revision

Categories from before 2001 come from earlier Red List systems. Three kinds are kept apart.

LR/lc and LR/nt are the modern LC and NT under their old names, so they are plotted as those categories and the line runs through them: nothing changed but the wording.

LR/cd was discontinued with no successor. This project reads it as Near Threatened, following a published crosswalk between the old and new Red List systems, and the chart marks such a point hollow and names both codes, because placing a category is not the same as finding it published.

The pre-1994 codes (E, V, K, T and the rest) are not on the risk order at all, so they sit below the axis and the line breaks across them. A category change across a criteria revision is not a change in extinction risk, and none of these is scored as a movement: the ledger refuses every one of them at gate 3.

LCNTVUENCR19942000201020231996: LR/cd, Lower Risk, conservation dependent (1994 system, discontinued 2001) (global). Placed at Near Threatened by the crosswalk this project adopted (Lin et al. 2025, doi:10.1111/cobi.70103); the category IUCN published is LR/cd.?1994: Insufficiently Known (pre-1994; not a risk category), from a superseded Red List system — carries no position on the risk order2007: Data Deficient — carries no position on the risk order2008: Data Deficient — carries no position on the risk order2013: Data Deficient — carries no position on the risk order2017: Data Deficient — carries no position on the risk order2023: Least Concern, assessed at Europe scope, not the global statusEuropeLCNTVUENCR19942000201020231996: LR/cd, Lower Risk, conservation dependent (1994 system, discontinued 2001) (global). Placed at Near Threatened by the crosswalk this project adopted (Lin et al. 2025, doi:10.1111/cobi.70103); the category IUCN published is LR/cd.?1994: Insufficiently Known (pre-1994; not a risk category), from a superseded Red List system — carries no position on the risk order2007: Data Deficient — carries no position on the risk order2008: Data Deficient — carries no position on the risk order2013: Data Deficient — carries no position on the risk order2017: Data Deficient — carries no position on the risk order2023: Least Concern, assessed at Europe scope, not the global statusEurope
  • published global assessment
  • placed on the scale by a crosswalk
  • not on this scale (below the axis)
  • regional assessment, never joined
Vertical position is the IUCN risk order, not a measured quantity: the gaps between categories are equal on the page and not in nature. Anything that is not one of the nine modern categories carries no position on that order — Data Deficient, a superseded category, or a record that no assessment was made — so it sits below the axis and the line breaks across it rather than joining through. Each point names which it is. One point is hollow: the category was discontinued with no successor and is placed on this scale by the crosswalk this project adopted (Lin et al. 2025, doi:10.1111/cobi.70103), not published on it. The code IUCN published is in the table below and in the point's own label. Regional assessments are shown but never joined to global ones; they describe a different population.

Category movement since listing: not scored. Gate 2: the species is currently Data Deficient globally. That category states that extinction risk is unknown, not that it is low. How this is defined and why some species are not scored

YearCategoryMeaningScopeStatus
2023LCLeast ConcernEuropecurrent for this scope
2017DDData DeficientGlobalcurrent for this scope
2013DDData DeficientGlobal
2008DDData DeficientGlobal
2007DDData DeficientGlobal
1996LR/cdLower Risk, conservation dependent (1994 system, discontinued 2001)Global
1994KInsufficiently Known (pre-1994; not a risk category)Global

Reported catch derived

NAMMCO catch exports dated 11 June 2025. A reported zero is stored as zero, distinct from an unknown.

YearAreaCatchQuota
2023East8none
2023Total35none
2023West27none
2022East4none
2022Total23none
2022West19none
2021East10none
2021West30none
2020East3none
2020Total29none
2020West26none
2019East13none
2019Total17none
2019West4none
2018East12none
2018Total21none
2018West9none
2017East12none
2017Total18none
2017West6none
2016East2none
2016Total14none
2016West12none
2015East7none
2015Total23none
2015West16none
2014East6none
2014Total16none
2014West10none
2013East11none
2013Total38none
2013West27none
2012East12none
2012Total44none
2012West32none
2011East5none
2011Total39none
2011West34none
2010East1none
2010Total15none

A row whose area is a total is NAMMCO's own aggregate of that year's areas, not an area to add to them.

Showing 40 of 84 records.

Illegal trade seizures derived

Seizure records whose reported taxon resolves to this species.

What the seizure source records

10 seizure records name this species. Matching is on the taxon the source reported, case aside, and each record below shows the reported name, so a match that is not literal can be seen for what it is. Across the whole compilation, 225 of 919 rows match one of the 43 species and the rest name other taxa.

Quantities are unitless. The source gives no date or place, so the table shows the product and the reported taxon.

Records per product, not a quantity.
ProductReported as
boneOrcinus orca
meatOrcinus orca
meatorcinus orca
medicineOrcinus orca
skin pieceOrcinus orca
skin pieceorcinus orca
specimenorcinus orca
specimenOrcinus orca
toothorcinus orca
toothOrcinus orca

References withheld

Machine-proposed bindings. Shown only where an expert has signed the profile and the binding is live.

No references are recorded for this species: none is shown, and none was machine-proposed for review.

Timeline curated

Curated events. Those with no corroborating table in this database are marked.

DateEventTypeCorroboration
2023-01-09IUCN Red List Assessment (2023)iucn_assessmentchecked against iucn_assessments
2017IUCN Red List Assessment (2017)iucn_assessmentchecked against iucn_assessments
2008IUCN Red List Assessment (2008)iucn_assessmentchecked against iucn_assessments
2003-02-13Listed in CITES Appendix IIcites_listingchecked against cites_listings
1996IUCN Red List Assessment (1996)iucn_assessmentchecked against iucn_assessments
1994IUCN Red List Assessment (1994)iucn_assessmentchecked against iucn_assessments