Now a world-renowned expert on whales and dolphins, he shares orca wisdom along with stories gleaned from decades of additional field study in the Russian Far East as well as return trips to Canada's West Coast to visit with the descendants of the killer whales he encountered 45 years ago. The largest member of the dolphin family was then considered too dangerous to approach in the wild. Star performers in aquariums and marine parks, killer whales were once considered to be too dangerous to approach in the wild.

Hoyt's youthful adventures turned into his life's work. When Erich Hoyt's Orca: The Whale Called Killer was first published in 1981, little was known about Orcinus orca. Press, 2002, with Smithsonian entomologist Ted Schultz) broke new ground. more Learn more Ask the Author To ask Erich Hoyt questions, please sign up. Before those books, Encyclopedia of Whales. Two popular volumes on social insects, The Earth Dwellers, (Simon & Schuster, 1996) and Insect Lives (Harvard Univ. In 2019, he produced an expanded, updated edition of his best-selling Orca: The Whale Called Killer, lavishly illustrated with 90 all new photos, illustrations and maps. Among his other books are five written for children and six academic books. This revised fifth edition includes Hoyt's original account, plus exciting new chapters that bring readers up to date on the revolution in public awareness and orca research that has taken place. Orca: The Whale Called Killer is still in print after more than 30 years. Hoyt has been working for whale and dolphin (cetacean) conservation since the early 1970s when his involvement in the first studies of wild killer whales in.

Working alongside other researchers keen to understand the life history of the killer whale, Hoyt's group helped to dispel the negative mythology about orcas while uncovering the intimate details of their social behaviour. That all changed when Erich Hoyt and his colleagues spent seven summers in the 1970s following these intelligent, playful creatures in the waters off northern Vancouver Island. The largest member of the dolphin family was then considered too dangerous to approach in the wild. When Erich Hoyt's Orca: The Whale Called Killer was first published in 1981, little was known about Orcinus orca.

Orca by Erich Hoyt