“One of the two oldest killer whales among the Puget Sound pods is missing and presumed dead.

“At an estimated 98 years old, K-7, nicknamed “Lummi,” was the oldest female in K pod and the recognized leader of the 20 whales in the group…

L-7, known as Lummi is missing and presumed dead. Photo by Aileen Ly

“(Ken) Balcomb (of the Center for Whale Research) said Tuesday’s encounter with L pod failed to turn up another missing whale, L-101 or “Aurora.” This 6-year-old animal is the brother of L-98, “Luna” — the orca that gained fame when he spent several years alone in Canada’s Nootka Sound, where he was killed by a boat propeller in 2006.

“Balcomb said he can’t rule out the possibility that Aurora is following the example of his older brother, living alone in some isolated bay.”

This is a small part of a larger story I wrote for today’s Kitsap Sun.

Howard Garrett of Orca Network wrote a tribute to L-7 that I’d like to share, with his permission:

We don’t really know how important K7 was to her extended family these past nine or ten decades. We do know that K7 was a great-great grandmother since 2004 when her great granddaughter K20 gave birth to her great-great grand son or daughter, K38. But there’s no hard evidence to tell us how orcas treat each other or how their roles develop as they grow in wisdom over the years.

After over 32 years of continuous studies based on Jane Goodall’s method called individual recognition, the research community believes that older females guide the entire clan and pass their deep knowledge of habitat and family traditions on to younger generations. K7, aka Lummi, was estimated to be the very oldest of them all. Her calculated birthdate was 1910, making her 98 years old this year, which is essentially equal to J2 (Granny), who lives on at about 97 years old. The next oldest is L25 (Ocean Sun), est. born in 1928, and three other females who were given a birthdate of 1933. J2 and K7 were definitely the elder females of the clan, and now only J2 can be considered to have the longest life and experience among the Southern Resident orca community.

We can only surmise how the other members of her family behaved and felt toward K7. We know that, like humans, females often live on for decades after having their last offspring at around age 40, so it is believed that these mature females must be highly valued by their families for their knowledge of fluctuations in habitat and where and how to find abundant food. But we also know that the Southern Residents’ entire vocal and behavioral repertoires are completely unique and distinct from all other orca societies, and presumably it’s the grandmother class that carries and transmits all these calls, rules, attitudes and traditions to the younger generations.

When every aspect of life, from when and what to eat, when to mate (and with whom), when not to mate, when to split up and travel and when to meet and greet and throw a party, are all determined according to cultural norms, clearly some individuals must play the part of respected guides and mentors.

But our understanding of all those mysterious and intricate interrelationships will have to remain in the realm of informed speculation, because we have no idea what they are saying to one another, and to date there have been no clear observations of discipline or jousting for dominance, or forced behavior of any kind (except when moms corral or command their young ones), and unlike the scars found on humpbacks and sperm whales, there’s no sign that they fight at all.

It’s apparently all done with subtle suggestions based on the profound influence of the longest-lived, most richly experienced females. K7 must have been highly regarded as one of the most reliable sources of traditional knowledge among Southern Resident orcas. May she be remembered respectfully and fondly by humans and orcas alike.

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Tags: Ken Balcomb, killer whales, L-7, Lummi, Luna, orcas

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 7th, 2008 at 12:20 pm and is filed under Marine mammals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.