Blogging About Critters Since 2007

Thursday, August 7, 2008

98 Year Old Orca Matriarch Dies

Well, that's just an estimate. I had no idea they could live that long.
Great-great-great-grandma Lummi – the oldest member of the local orca population – has been missing since December and is presumed dead.

Lummi, the matriarch of the family of orcas known as K pod, is thought to have been born around 1910, give or take 15 years. Her birth year is an estimate based on when she stopped having babies.

Even if the number is off by a decade, 98-year-old Lummi was a pretty old orca. On average, female orcas found around Puget Sound and the waters of the San Juan Islands and Vancouver Island live to be about 50.

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