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Thursday, August 14, 2008

New Baby! L111

Always great news for the Southern Resident killer whales, a new baby was born to L-Pod on August 12th. The calf, designated L111, was born to Marina (L47). This is Marina's sixth known offspring. Her oldest, Moonlight (L83), made Marina a grandmother for the first time one year ago with the birth of L110. She is also the mother to Muncher (L91). Unfortunately, Marina's last three calves have not survived their first year of life.

Interestingly, while the majority of the Southern Resident superpod left the islands early in the morning on August 12th, only this group of Ls with the calf stayed in. While I haven't seen them yet, I hear that there are only females and juveniles in the group, and no adult males. It's an unusual group of Ls, too - mostly whales that haven't even been seen much inland at all this summer. I wonder if they're staying in because of the young calf?

I'll be back out on the water the next three days, so hopefully if these whales are still around I'll have some first-hand updates.

2 comments:

juliana said...

That's so cool! I can't wait to hear more about the new baby. Also, I think Muncher is an awesome name!

Monika said...

Hey, good to see you started a blog! I'll definitely be a frequent reader. I didn't get to see the baby today, but hopefully soon! Also, I like Muncher as a whale name too, though it always strikes me as a good name for a Pac Man character.