Let’s chat about our male orca and how they branch off to do their own things as mischief teenagers, but usually return to their mothers’ side. Even with their fierce name, killer whale and being the apex predator they are mama’s boys! Here we see Jude T049A2, one of our big males travelling alone. He was born in 2007, making him 15 years old. Having mom nearby significantly increases a males chance of survival. The orca are matriarchal, their society is run by the female. Their gestation period can last up to 18 months, and they give birth to a single calf. Newborns depend exclusively on their mothers for milk for up to two years and then for food until they learn to hunt for themselves. This attentive parenting means the orca moms usually only have a calf every 3 to 5 years. So we know the ladies run the show, but why is this important? Their societies are also matrilineal as most offspring stay with their mothers and grandmothers their entire lives. These mothers and grandmothers can reach ages of 60+ years, and remain in tight-knit family groups raising their young together. This boosts baby orcas chances of survival because they have a lot of really great babysitters to help care for and feed the young. Even after menopause occurs in the elder females at around 40 to 50 years of age, they are still incredibly valuable members of the family. Alright, back to why Jude may be travelling without mom by his side. The best speculation is he is looking for some “tail” or a more scientific term would be looking for a mate! Male orcas are not the most attentive fathers, after mating with a female from a different matriline they return to their own mothers. They leave the parenting of their own offspring to the mother and her family. This makes it very difficult to know exactly who the calfs father is. Although males do not care for their own kids, they are amazing companions, playmates, teachers and babysitters to their younger relatives in their matriline. Male orca are very dependant on their mothers, even throughout adulthood. If a male orcas mother passes away after he reaches maturity, he is 3 times more likely to pass the following year.

Now, we’re gonna chat a little about Inyo T037A1 who we spotted without mom as well. Inyo was spotted this afternoon travelling with the T65B’s. Inyo is not a male, so what is she up to? She comes from a large family consisting of 6 whales including herself. We sometimes see the females branch off if their families are getting crowded. Her mother Volker did the same thing, branching away from her mother Rocky III and becoming their own matriarchs. Inyo is now a 15-year-old female. Female orca sexually mature at around 10 years of age and start mating around 14… so I think it is a safe bet to say she is probably going to be with calf soon! Our fingers are crossed, we LOVE our babies! Mating can occur at any time, although it is more common in summer.

Transient orca

T049A2 - Jude

T037A1 - Inyo

T065B - Chunk

T065B1 - Birdsall

T065B2 - Nettle

As for our humpback that we spotted this afternoon, the name remains a mystery. Even though the dorsal fin pictured below is very distinct, we do not have a confirmation on who this whale may be. There are several ways we can identify our humpbacks, one is by the dorsal fin and the other is by the fluke also known as the tail print. Unfortunately our humpback today did not want to give us a wave of that big tail. We can sometimes see scaring on the whales sides that can also help us match a name to a fin, but we had no luck in that regard either. We do like to get a positive ID on our whales whenever possible as it is very important when it comes to the research side of things. We will go back on our unidentified photos and try to match them if we get some new shots and we hope to ID this whale in the future.

July 7th - Transient orca and a Humpback

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