Comparing Vocalizations between Matrilines of Southern Resident Killer Whales
Vocalizations are an important part of the killer whale (Orcinus orca) species used in all aspects of their lives; communication, foraging, and traveling. It has been suggested that killer whales have different dialects to differentiate from one other, at least on the pod or matrilineal level. The goal was to identify a whale to a call and compare the calls across matrilines within the three Southern Resident killer whale pods. This proved difficult not having enough data to accurately make assumptions. But some evidence provided that there could be vocal learning in social situations between pods in the past couple decades, this could also supported due to the fact that the three southern resident pods (J K &L, making up J clan) have been starting to intermingle more in the most recent years. I was also about to see pod call structure similarities. Link