Digestion and Excretion
Killer whales choose, track, and stalk their prey, often choosing weaker targets for food, such as young sharks, or young blue whales. Killer whales commonly use their tail flukes to kill or stun fish. Then, using their rather large teeth, they tear into their prey, or swallow it whole. Killer whales do not chew their food, even if they tear into it. Once the food is in their mouths, they swallow it whole. The stomach of a Killer whale is divided into three sections. The first section usually contains sand and broken shells. This is used to help the killer whale crush its food up, since it was swallowed whole. The stomach remains in constant motion with the use of the muscle tissues. The rest of the digestion process occurs in the other two sections of the stomach, after the first section has properly crushed the food. Killer whales drink sea water, and their kidneys cleanse the sea water by extracting the salt.