Today is my birthday and today i found out there are two more southern resident orca babies born, that is the best birthday present i could have ever asked for !!! Read the comments for articles.
OrcaGirl
Today is my birthday and today i found out there are two more southern resident orca babies born, that is the best birthday present i could have ever asked for !!! Read the comments for articles.
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URL: http://www.kitsapsun.com/bsun/home/article/0,2403,BSUN_19081_3421431,00.html
New orca babies seen in Puget Sound pods
By Christopher Dunagan, Sun Staff
December 23, 2004
Two newborn killer whales are being welcomed into the J and K pods, two of the major Puget Sound orca groupings, according to whale researcher Mark Sears of Seattle.
“They are pretty glued to their mothers right now,” said Sears, who observed the J calf on Tuesday and the K calf Wednesday.
One mother is J-14, a 30-year-old female known as Samish, who is the granddaughter of J-2 and the great-niece of J-1, two of the oldest members of the Puget Sound pods. This is her third calf. The other mother is K-20, an 18-year-old female known as Spock, who was believed for many years to be a male because of her large dorsal fin. This is her first calf.
Sears said the K calf was born late Tuesday or early Wednesday, whereas the J calf was born while the pod was outside Puget Sound the past three weeks.
“Both of the calves are getting a lot of attention, surrounded by juveniles and other females,” Sears said.
Because of the large number of chum salmon in central and southern Puget Sound, the whales are not locked into their typical traveling or feeding patterns right now, he said.
In October, two other baby orcas were born to L Pod, which has not been sighted lately and may be gone from Puget Sound for winter travels up and down the coast.
The Center for Whale Research reported that K-18, a 55-year-old female, was not seen this year and probably has died.
Counting all four newborns and the one death, the population of the three pods now stands at 87 — not including Luna, L-98, who is living alone in Nootka Sound in Canada, or Lolita, who is living in a Miami aquarium.
The newborns have not yet been confirmed by the Center for Whale Research, which maintains the identifications for the Puget Sound whales.
Last week, the three pods were proposed to be listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act because the population dropped suddenly by 20 percent between 1995 and 2001.
Reach Christopher Dunagan at (360) 792-9207 or e-mail cdunagan@kitsapsun.com.
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