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Orca family spotted in Amur River returns to Sea of Okhotsk

It is noted that the Amur estuary area is inhabited mainly by transient carnivorous orcas that feed on marine mammals

© Yuri Smityuk/TASS

KHABAROVSK, October 19. /TASS/. An orca with two calves who swam into the Amur River is returning to the Sea of Okhotsk, the head of the Nikolayev district Anatoly Leonov reported.

"The orca family, who had been attracting the attention of the Nikolayevsky and Ulchsky districts’ residents for several days, is heading home to the Sea of Okhotsk. The last time they were spotted was near the village of Nizhnyaya Gavan in the Ulchsky District. After enjoying the fresh water of the Amur River, the predator and its calves returned to its natural habitat", Leonov wrote.

The head of Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Natural Resources (Rosprirodnadzor) Svetlana Radionova said on Sunday that an orca with two calves was spotted in the Amur River in the Khabarovsk Region. She noted that the family swam from the village of Mago in the Nikolaevsky district to the village of Tyr in the Ulchsky district. Radionova also appealed to residents of the Khabarovsk Region with a request not to approach the orcas, as it could harm both the animals and people. A senior researcher of the V.I. Ilyichov Pacific Oceanological Institute Sergey Ryazanov told TASS that this was the first case of such a lengthy passing of orcas into the river. The orcas were about 100 km from the river mouth.

According to him, the Amur estuary area is inhabited mainly by transient carnivorous orcas that feed on marine mammals. Ryazanov suggested that the orcas could have entered the Amur RIver in pursuit of prey. Resident orcas, whose diet consists mainly of fish, could have entered as well. The fresh water should not affect the orca’s health.

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