Bigg’s orca are highly social animals that travel in close-knit family units, also called pods. In the Bigg’s community, a pod is typically comprised of the Matriarch and her offspring. Occasionally you get multi-generational pods, where the Matriarch travels with one daughter and their kids.

And sometimes you get an Indy. Indy is a young male orca who goes by the scientific number of T065A5. His mom Artemis travels the Salish Sea, typically with 5 kids in tow. Indy has always been a bit of a trouble maker. Earlier this year he made headlines when he became trapped in a lagoon during low tide in the US. Thankfully when the tides rose he found his way out and returned to his mom’s side, but not for long. Eventually Indy left his mom’s side to explore life solo in the Salish Sea.

We’ve seen this trend growing over the last year, with a number of our young orca branching off from their mom to explore on their own. Young males especially are known to break away during their early teen years to travel with other pods but often return to their moms after a short while. While most whales return to their mom, some decide that the solo life is better than the family life. There are a number of lone bulls, and even a few lone matriarchs, that travel the sea. Hanging out with who they want, when they want. Sometimes this means returning to the family for a day or 2, or sometimes they vanish for months if not years before being resighted, like Inyo (T037A1) a long female who dispersed from her mom several years ago with no calves of her own. Jude (T049A2) is another example, having left his mom’s side last summer to explore the sea with his brother, he seems to have continued going solo well into this year. Last year a 2-year-old female orca dispersed from her mom’s side and has been seen travelling with other pods, which is extremely rare and unusual.

While young males do disperse occasionally, they are usually well into their teens when they do. Indy however is only 8 years old - they haven’t even hit puberty yet. Indy has been pod hopping and travelling with other whales on and off for about 4-5 weeks. While we often see him alone it doesn’t mean he isn’t in communication with his family. These whales cover hundreds of miles a week, and there’s every possibility he’s run into his mom or siblings in his adventure, checked in and left, all without people laying eyes on him.
On the flip side, he could be just enjoying life by himself and continuing his adventures. While it’s concerning when young whales disperse, if they are finding food and other pods to travel with, theoretically they are fine. Indy looks very well fed, but he is also getting increasingly excitable. Today we watched as Indy started breaching, spy hopping and tail lobbing as he travelled around near Gabriola Island. He even mugged the boats briefly, which is an odd behavior for an orca. Occasionally an orca will give a close pass to the vessels, inspecting them quickly before moving on, but not often do they “mug” the boats. That’s typically a job reserved for humpbacks. It was a very curious behavior that had us scratching our heads. We hope he was just in an excitable mood and that he is doing well, as he didn’t appear injured or otherwise distressed.

No matter how long you watch whales for they will always find a way to leave you questioning what you thought you knew.

Enjoy the photos below taken by marine naturalists Aly Kohlman and Vanessa Vereschahen.

September 17th - Indy the orca in the Gabriola Reefs

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