flukeprintphotography:J1 Ruffles, The Iconic Bull from J Pod…Was an L Pod Whale!Things are not alway
flukeprintphotography:J1 Ruffles, The Iconic Bull from J Pod…Was an L Pod Whale!Things are not always as they seem in killer whale population biology. J1, known to the public as Ruffles, was a keystone member of the southern resident killer whale population. He was most often seen traveling with J2 Granny, famous for her purported age of 100+ (spoiler: she probably was around 60-80 years old). Because of their close relationship, researchers assumed J1 was the final calf of J2, who had not given birth since killer whale population studies started in the 70s. Doing a bit of math and back calculating, they came to the conclusion that since J1 must be her final calf, J2 must have been born around 1911. A study on the paternity and reproductive success in the southern residents, published in 2011, revealed that this long-held assumption was completely wrong. You have to dig a little bit into the supplementary material/appendix, but it is there, clear as day: genetic testing showed J2 was not the mother of J1. His mother was listed as an unknown female that had not been sampled at that time. This essentially invalidated J2′s age estimate of 100+ years as it had been based on the assumption J1 was her final offspring. However, everyone still assumed J1 belonged to J pod. After all, why wouldn’t he be? He travelled with them all of the time. He was an iconic member of J pod. That, too, was wrong. Further genetic studies published in 2018 by Ford et al. dropped a bombshell that went largely unnoticed until recently. Again, looking into the supplementary material of that paper, we can see more information about paternity and maternity of the southern residents. And the most interesting fact to emerge was the identity of J1′s true mother: L45 Asterix. Additionally, it was revealed that L57 Faith, another large bull, was J1′s half-brother. J1 was in fact a true member of L pod. But the surprises don’t stop there. J1 was traveling with J2 as an integrated member of J pod when studies on the southern resident population began. His real mother, J45, however, was still very much alive and did not pass away until 1995. There are instances when orphaned males will transfer to a new pod and become “adopted” by other females (this is the situation with L87, currently living with J pod, who also was adopted by J2 Granny). But J1 wasn’t orphaned. His mother was alive and well. Why wasn’t he traveling in his birth pod with his birth mother? This new information raises the possibility that J1 could have been rejected or otherwise abandoned by his mother, causing him to seek out companionship with females in J pod. Another possibility is that L45 had enough on her plate raising L57 and J1 went off in search of a better adopted mother/provisioner (which we know is critical to the survival of adult males). While the revelation of J1′s true identity is definitely startling for all those who followed him over the years, there is some good news as well. J1 was a very successful father and sired dozens of calves, many of whom are in J pod. This raised concerns about inbreeding as pod members, even if they are not in the same matriline, are usually related. Typically, whales try to breed outside the pod by mating with individuals whose vocalizations are most different from their own––this indicates they are not closely related. Knowing that J1 was genetically an L pod whale means that the genetic viability of J pod is perhaps not as bad as once thought. It also raises interesting questions about culture and learning in killer whales––did J1 use J pod vocalizations or L pod vocalizations? How did this impact mate choices? This new discovery shows that with improvements in genetics, there are facets of killer whale biology which we currently accept as fact that might require a closer look. I, for one, love this aspect of science. There is always more to learn.Check out @derangedhyena-delphinidae recording of the Way of Whales Workshop in which this information is discussed!Photo source: Center for Whale Research.Whoa, twist! -- source link
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