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About the Southern Residents
The Southern Residents, like all killer whales, are highly matriarchal in nature. This means that a whale will follow their mother until they die, generation to generation. Mothers feed and protect their families, as well as spread their genes through their sons, who mate with other pods.
The Southern Residents are among the most studied whales in the world. Every single one has an alphanumeric designation and a charming adoptive name. Many of these names are after locations in the Salish region, like Tahlequah, Alki, Sequim, and Tofino, for example. Calves spend almost all of their time with their mothers, even as adults.
Southern residents also have a distinctive look to them compared to other ecotypes of killer whales, to the trained eye. Southern residents often have rounded or curved dorsal fins. Their eye patches are slightly thinner than those of transients, and they usually have a small dip in them before generally pointing up. A large portion of their population has open saddle patches, a characteristic almost other whale ecotypes in the region don't carry.
On some of these whales' profiles, you may see fathers listed as well as mothers. Mothers care for the calves all their lives, whereas fathers are not involved with their own calves. A male whale will stay by his mothers side, instead. Therefore, fatherhood is determined by genetic testing. Fathers do not play an important role in the social structure of wild whales.
On this page, I have a profile for every living Southern Resident. I list their names, mothers, fathers, sexes, years of birth, ages, living siblings, and living calves in that order. If information is missing or not applicable I omit it from the profile.
The SRKWs are also in an extremely dire situation. They are starving to death at an alarming rate. Their population is in free-fall because they cannot get the salmon they need to survive due to dams in the lower Snake River. They are entrenched in their food culture and cannot eat other food sources, having been genetically diverged from mammal eating Transient whales for at least 200,000 years. There is one major and straightforward thing we can do to preserve them: breach the lower four Snake River dams so that more salmon will flow out of the Fraser River.
The Southern Residents are approaching, or perhaps have already approached, a breaking point. Should they pass this so-called point of no return, they will not be able to reproduce at a replacement level. Their genetic pool will shrink so drastically that they will cease to exist. I hope that we have not passed this point yet, but you never know for certain. The Southern Residents need our help, and they need it right now.
In some ways, the SRs own culture and habits are also destroying them. Their rigidity in diet, their tendency for breeding with the same males over and over, this is hurting them, this is shrinking their genetic pool. But to blame the Southern Residents for their own destruction would be a misrepresentation of the truth. This small pocket of whales have existed in this region for literally hundreds of thousands of years. It seems they could weather just about anything- but not human malice. The Southern Residents might not ever recover from our total destruction of their way of life. And that breaks my heart. Yet, rest assured that they have not, and will not, go quietly. They are desperate to survive. Should they disappear, we will have only ourselves to blame.
If you want to donate, sign petitions, or learn more about the Southern Resident's plight, go to my Bibliography & Sources section and check out The Center For Whale Research.
L-41 Mega
Statistics
Sex: Male
Year of Birth: 1977
Year of Death: 2021
Age at death: 44
Siblings: L77 Matia and L94 Calypso
Calves: J34 Doublestuf, J35 Tahlequah, J36 Alki, J37 Hy'shqa, J40 Suttles, J45 Se-Yi'-Chn, J44 Moby, J53 Kiki, K33 Tika, K34 Cali, K35 Sonata, K36 Yoda, K42 Kelp, L95, L100 Indigo, L101, L106 Pooka, L112 Sooke, and L116 Finn
About Mega
Mega was the elder male of the Southern Resident Clan when he died. He was the father to nineteen calves (that we know of), fourteen of whom are still alive today. Mega traveled with his sister Calypso and her calves, L119 Joy and L121 Windsong frequently. He lived beyond the expected lifespan of male resident whales, and I think that's something to celebrate.
I remember when I found out Mega had died. I was a sophomore in high school, studying in a bakery, about to take my chemistry final exam. I thought of him and the extraordinary life he must have had, and all the calves he fathered, the nephews and neices he helped to raise, the sisters he supported. I wasn't sad. I was happy he had lived such a full life.
K-21 Cappuccino
Statistics
Mother: K18 Kiska
Sex: Male
Year of Birth: 1986
Year of Death: 2021
Age at death: 35
About Cappuccino
Cappuccino was a male in K pod who was born in 1986. He had no living family for many years before his death, but traveled with K pod. He was particularly fond of K16 Opus and her son K35 Sonata. Cappuccino was the oldest male in the Southern Resident Clan at the time of his death.
On his last sighting on July 27th, 2021, he was in one of the worst recorded bodily conditions of any killer whale. He was so thin that you could see his ribs. He had peanut head, and his fin had completely collapsed to his right side. The dorsal collapse was worse than any I've ever seen, captive or wild. It was so fully fallen that you couldn't see it from his left side at all. He was having trouble swimming against the currents and surfacing as he traveled with K Pod through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, waters he had swam in for his entire life. He wasn't seen again the next day, and researchers knew that he had died.
K21 was the first whale I could ever identify just by looking at him. He had the most beautiful open saddle patches. His dorsal fin was iconic, it had a little round nick near the center of the trailing edge. I would have known it anywhere. To see it so thoroughly collapsed like that just broke my heart.
In spite of his weakened health, K21 still lived a relatively long life for a male Southern Resident. The best way to increase these whales' lifespans is to restore salmon runs in the American Pacific Northwest.
L-47 Marina
Statistics
Sex: Female
Year of Birth: 1974
Year of Death: Declared missing September 2021
Age at Death: 47
Living Calves: L83 Moonlight, L91 Muncher and L115 Mystic
About Marina
Marina was a mature female in L pod; she was born in 1974. She was the matriarch of her children and grandchildren. She had two daughters, L83 Moonlight and L91 Muncher, a son, L115 Mystic. She had two grandsons, L83 Moonlight’s calf L110 Midnight, and L91 Muncher’s calf, L122 Magic.
Marina will be survived by her matriline and by those devoted whales watchers who loved her.
K-44 Ripple
Statistics
Mother: K27 Deadhead
Sex: Male
Year of Birth: 2011
Year of Death: Declared missing and presumed deceased August 13th, 2022, last seen November 2021
Age at Death: 10-11
About Ripple
Ripple was born in 2011 to K27 Deadhead and from then almost until his death, he was the youngest calf in K Pod. He had a curved dorsal fin, two notches at the base of his dorsal fin, and open saddle patches. He was named after the Grateful Dead song.
"If I knew the way, I would take you home."
The Southern Resident's Diminishing Genetic Diversity
The Southern Residents are, as you have probably figured out, very endangered, and their breeding patterns that may have worked for them in past centuries aren't helping them out in the 21st century.
Female orcas tend to mate with the oldest males available to her. This makes sense- the oldest animals are probably the fittest and best cared for by their mothers. However, recently, this means that a large portion of whales born in the last 30 years are descended from two males; J1 and L41. Not every whale is related, and this doesn't mean that they are doomed, but it does mean that their gene pool is small. Both J1 and L41 lived respectable lifespans before passing away in 2010 in the case of J1, and 2020 for L41. This means that the oldest male SRKW is now K21 Cappuccino, who is 35 years old.
Hopefully, turnover and change in their breeding patterns will help the Southern Residents to keep their gene pools large and avoid widespread inbreeding.
A Note About Inbreeding
In general, inbreeding among wild killer whales is not common. In the Southern Resident population specifically, both mother-son and father-daughter inbreeding have been recorded. J16 Slick mated with her son J26 Mike, and the pair produced J42 Echo. J1 Ruffles mated with his daughter, J28 Polaris, and they produced J46 Star. Killer whales know and travel with their mothers for life, and so this type of inbreeding is very strange indeed. However, it's not clear if whales can 'tell' or 'remember' who their own fathers are. Male killer whales don't rear their own calves and probably can't recognize their own progeny, making inbreeding possible in a small population. If their population continues on this shrinking trend, inbreeding may become more common.
About these Family Trees
These are the family trees of the Southern Residents! As always, if there is anything missing or incorrect, please let me know. Pink boxes mean the whale is female, blue male, and white means the sex is unknown. If a whale's name is grey instead of black, that means they have passed away.
Southern Resident Matrilines
