Killer whales have a well-developed, acute sense of hearing.

Killer whales have acute vision both in and out of the water.

The lens of a marine mammal’s eye is stronger than that of a land mammal.

DNA from several other species of toothed whales indicated that the eyes of these whales do not develop pigment cells called “S-cones,” which are sensitive to blue light. Researchers theorize that all modern cetaceans, including killer whales, lack these visual pigments and therefore aren’t able to discriminate color in the blue wavelengths.

In studies at SeaWorld, killer whales visually discriminated among similar objects. During more than one hundred trials a killer whale was shown an object and cued to find a matching object. When given two choices, the whale chose the matching object with 92% accuracy, and when three choices were presented the whale's accuracy was about 82%. Researchers did not determine whether the whale was responding to shape, size, or color. Future studies may provide more detailed information on the visual abilities of killer whale.

Anatomical studies and observations of behavior indicate that a killer whale’s sense of touch is well developed. Studies of closely related species (common dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, and false killer whales) suggest that the most sensitive areas are the blowhole region and areas around the eyes and mouth.

Little is known about a killer whale’s sense of taste. They do have taste buds, although they haven’t been well studied. In zoological parks, killer whales show strong preferences for specific food fishes.

Olfactory lobes of the brain and olfactory nerves are absent in all toothed whales, indicating that they have no sense of smell. Being air-breathing mammals that spend a majority of time under water, a sense of smell would go largely unused in killer whales.