# What animals could kill an orca? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 5, 2015, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animals-could-kill-an-orca/721725 "2015-06-05T16:46:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ac8455/32.png) [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Great_Darsh_Face)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animals-could-kill-an-orca/721725/21 "2015-06-06T19:08:09Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > Yep, I trained dolphins, sea lions, seals, pilot whales and orcas in a former life, and I used to know quite a bit about them. > > ‘Apex’ predator means that it’s at the top of the food chain. I’ve never heard anyone suggest that a Sperm Whale is an apex predator. I think a pack of Orcas could probably take down even an adult Sperm Whale, sick or otherwise, if it they could somehow keep it from diving to great depths. I’ve also seen captive Orcas ram each other with great force in anger… Wikipedia suggests, with a supporting cite, that full-grown adult bulls are too large and aggressive for orcas, and will even attack them or at least threaten them. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2015, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animals-could-kill-an-orca/721725/22 "2015-06-06T23:47:33Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > rattlesnake? You realize that an Orca can weigh 8,000 lbs., right? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animals-could-kill-an-orca/721725/23 "2015-06-07T02:21:52Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > You realize that an Orca can weigh 8,000 lbs., right? 22,000 pounds, actually. King cobras can kill elephants, which weigh up to 12,000 pounds. It’s not impossible that a very large venomous snake might have enough venom to kill a small orca, or at least make it weak enough to drown. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animals-could-kill-an-orca/721725/24 "2015-06-07T16:56:54Z")
Elapids deliver much more venom per bite than other venomous snakes. King cobras, for example, can deliver 500mg in one bite. By contrast, sea snakes seem to deliver much less venom, though their venom is far more potent. If I’m doing the math right, you would need 396 mg of [even the most potent snake venom](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aipysurus_duboisii) to kill a 9000 kilo orca., but sea snakes ([this one at least](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelamis_platura)) only deliver tiny quantities per bite (4.0 mg.) ---
**Author:** ![Nelson\_Pike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Nelson\_Pike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nelson_Pike)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animals-could-kill-an-orca/721725/25 "2015-06-07T22:08:22Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Elapids deliver much more venom per bite than other venomous snakes. King cobras, for example, can deliver 500mg in one bite. By contrast, sea snakes seem to deliver much less venom, though their venom is far more potent. If I’m doing the math right, you would need 396 mg of [even the most potent snake venom](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aipysurus_duboisii) to kill a 9000 kilo orca., but sea snakes ([this one at least](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelamis_platura)) only deliver tiny quantities per bite (4.0 mg.) Where are you obtaining mg venom per bite data? Sea Snakes are an elapid Krait species so much smaller than the KC that it should not be surprising that KC venom delivery per bite is much greater. However, numerous vipers (e.g Diamond Backs and Gaboon Vipers) are more massive even than the KC, and I believe I have read that the GV has the highest venom per bite of all. Getting back to the terrestrial elapids, you certainly wouldn’t want to get bitten by a KC, but the Black Mamba (an African species), the Taipan (Australian), and terrestrial Krait (South Asia) deliver bites which are virtually 100% fatal if untreated, and I think the untreated survival rate for a KC bite is small, but non-zero. ---
**Author:** ![Nelson\_Pike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Nelson\_Pike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nelson_Pike)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animals-could-kill-an-orca/721725/26 "2015-06-07T22:19:43Z")
According the the [University of Florida Dept. of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation](http://ufwildlife.ifas.ufl.edu/venomous_snake_faqs.shtml)" (from link) > [@](#): > > The **amount of venom in a snake’s venom gland** (measured as the amount extracted by milking) **increases exponentially with the size of the snake** , and can range from 1 – **850mg** (or more). In a study comparing snake venoms, researchers milked the largest amount of venom from an **Eastern Diamondback** Rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus)–more than from any other species they studied. Snakes have some control over venom delivered, and I expect a DB could inject all 850mg if it wanted to. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animals-could-kill-an-orca/721725/27 "2015-06-08T13:29:43Z")
LD50 for the eastern diamondback is [more than 1 mg/kg](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crotalus_adamanteus), so that’s still not going to be enough to kill reliably (though we seem to be closest to bumping off our orca there.) ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animals-could-kill-an-orca/721725/28 "2015-06-08T20:25:39Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > That’s the first thing I thought of. A Giant Squid might be able to kill an Orca but I don’t know if Orcas deep dive into the environs of the Giant Squid. If we can capture a Giant Squid alive maybe we could send it to Sea World and find out. [But at least we can rule out the Giant Octopus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tentacles_%28film%29). 😃 In the end, the octopus is killed by Gleason’s pair of killer whales. ---
**Author:** ![gytalf2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ac91a4/32.png) [@gytalf2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gytalf2000)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animals-could-kill-an-orca/721725/29 "2015-06-08T20:35:04Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > [But at least we can rule out the Giant Octopus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tentacles_%28film%29). 😃 > > In the end, the octopus is killed by Gleason’s pair of killer whales. Hey, I have seen that movie! Nifty! ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animals-could-kill-an-orca/721725/30 "2015-06-08T21:12:41Z")
I thought I’d heard years ago about pods of dolphins attacking (or maybe defending from?) killer whales. Maybe it was an orca who tried to take down a dolphin but was then beat to a pulp by the dolphin’s friends. I don’t think a dolphin would intentionally attack something as big as an orca, even in a group. ---
**Author:** ![Boogaloo\_Shrimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71c47a/32.png) [@Boogaloo\_Shrimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boogaloo_Shrimp)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2015, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animals-could-kill-an-orca/721725/31 "2015-06-09T09:39:18Z")
The most deadly species of all: humans. They just have to drop a nuke on them. [https://c4.staticflickr.com/4/3015/3128676813\_120f8ee156\_b.jpg](https://c4.staticflickr.com/4/3015/3128676813_120f8ee156_b.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animals-could-kill-an-orca/721725/32 "2015-06-10T15:09:14Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Some [sea snakes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrophiinae) are extremely venomous. However, most species might have a problem opening their mouths wide enough to actually bite an orca. Blubber would also provide some protection. The most likely way for one to kill an orca is if the orca inadvertently swallowed it and it bit the inside of its mouth. I guess the edge length of a fin would fit, too, but I’m further guessing that the skin is quite tough there. Are the tentacles & suckers of a colossal squid strong enough to latch and hang onto a struggling adult orca, if the squid wanted to pull it down and drown it? ---
**Author:** ![Bert\_Nobbins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@Bert\_Nobbins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bert_Nobbins)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2015, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animals-could-kill-an-orca/721725/33 "2015-06-10T17:31:57Z")
> [@Boogaloo\_Shrimp](#): > > The most deadly species of all: humans. They just have to drop a nuke on them. [https://c4.staticflickr.com/4/3015/3128676813\_120f8ee156\_b.jpg](https://c4.staticflickr.com/4/3015/3128676813_120f8ee156_b.jpg) But the only way to be sure is to do that from orbit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-animals-could-kill-an-orca/721725.md?page=1)