The largest recorded Orca

[GuateGojira]

Thanks you for the information and the two documents Tigerluver. You are not going to believe in me, but I have downloaded them seconds before you post them here. [img]images/smilies/wink.gif[/img]

Your approach on the "wild vs captive" weight is more deep than mine, because in your logic, wild animals are heavier by virtue of they more developed muscles and denser bones. However, my approach was more general, and of course taking in count the fat. In this case, captive animals are more heavier than wild ones. Check for example tigers, as no tiger is going to weight 400 kg in the wild, but there are a few confirmed specimens of that weight and more in captivity. Gerald Wood (1978) put a huge list of captive and wild mammals and in all cases, captive specimens are heavier.

I think is going for interpretations, but overall, a captive specimen, on land, would weight more than a wild one. Obviously, I don't know if this is the same on sea.

On the weights of wild orcas, the weights could be obtained from dead specimens, that are normally measured by scientists (not taking in count those measured by lasers and photographs, of course), however, like you say, it will be expensive and time consuming, and that will be the answer about why I have not found any weight in scientific papers. On the other hand, there are the hunting records from the whalers, where many weights came, but again, Wood (1978) explain that those weights are from cut specimens (in the case of the largest whales) and the loss of blood and other fluids create and underestimation of the real figures.

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