What if you wished you were an orca? Then you became an orca.(An orca is an amazing kind of whale!)Could you eat like an orca? Sleep like an orca? Live in an orca family?And would you want to? Find out!Orcas live in oceans around the world. even in the waters by Antarctica.Some orcas feed on only fish. They usually find enough to eat close to shore.Others feed on seals and whales that travel through the ocean.Those orcas may feed near shore.More often their food chase takes them farther.What would your family be like?Orcas live in groups. Each group is called a pod. Pods are made up of several families.Orcas stay with their pod their whole lives.An orca dives as it swims. It often comes to the surface, because it breathes air.An orca breathes through a blowhole on top of its head.Muscles keep the blowhole closed when the orca is underwater.A younger calf swims alongside its mother.Orca calves learn by copying what the adults do.A calf learns to poke its head up out of the water.That's called spy-hopping.Orcas spy-hop to see what's above the water.Young calves practice leaping out of the water.Leaping helps orcas swim fast.Older calves play together. They leap over one another.They also play by pushing their tails up and slapping them down hard.SPLASH! SPLASH! SPLASH!Orcas talk with clicks. They also whistle and squeak.Each pod has its own way of using sounds to talk.Calves copy their mothers to learn to talk to their pod.Pods use teamwork to hunt. Calves join in to learn what to do.Sometimes orcas use their clicking sounds to hunt.Sound waves hit schools of fish and bounce back as echoes.That's how orcas hunt in dark waters.A calf drinks its mother's milk for the first two years of its life.The rich milk helps the calf grow a layer of fat called blubber.The blubber keeps an orca warm in cold ocean waters.Orca calves have a full set of teeth when they are born.Each tooth is long and sharp. Calves will use these teeth to catch food when they are older.Orcas share meals. Food sharing is a big part of being a family.Orcas sleep in the ocean. While resting, orcas swim slowly and stay close to each other.When an orca rests, only half of its brain goes to sleep.The other half stays alert so the whale can swim to the surface to breathe while it is sleeping.As the calves get older, they grow bigger.Males grow to around 22 feet (6.7 meters) long.Females are usually a little smaller.Males also grow a bigger dorsal fin than the females.The dorsal fin is the tall fin on their backs.By age five, the calves help the other orcas in the pod hunt.Being an orca could be cool for a while.But would you want to live in the ocean?Swim while you sleep?Or eat only meat when you grow up?Luckily, you don't have to.You're not an orca.You're YOU!

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