Dude in BC they pretend a pod of orcas is a separate species because orcas aren’t endangered so they had to invent a species with 73 members so they could have something to complain about.
> Dude in BC they pretend a pod of orcas is a separate species because orcas aren’t endangered so they had to invent a species with 73 members so they could have something to complain about.
Sometimes scientists do genetic analysis and find things, yep.
We don't do this because we are drama queens, It just happens that murica has some unique cetacean species and they are experiencing a sharp decline by unclear reasons. Some people repeating the same stupid jokes about activists since 1960's don't help to provide any solution.
All seen the same to you? Can you spot the differences?
They look different but look at homo sapiens, the variance is quite a bit less. They definitely look like the same species to me.
Also there’s a huge difference between a species doing poorly and the species changing its habits / dominant feeding areas, especially for species that are highly nomadic.
Genetically different microsatellite DNA and mitochondrial DNA.
Unique vocalisations than don't share with offshore, transient or northern resident orcas. Never had seen in company of the other resident orcas. And northern resident orcas don't go South of Oregon.
The 80% of its diet is chinook salmon, therefore they are clearly different in diet, hunt techniques and ecology than offshore or transient orcas. And very different also to the subantartic type (D).
This mean also that we aren't prey, and they tolerate [1] humans that behave and keep the distance (I wouldn't put my money on the bigger meat eater species being so tolerant to us.
> They are highly nomadic
Some orcas are nomadic, other not so much. Resident orcas are, hum... resident. Is in the name. They migrate North and South of the west coast following the salmons but will not end in the Mediterranean, for example.
[1] Of course if you attack any orca or try to approach a cub in the sea and they see it as harassment, the family will react and you will be in a serious trouble.
The entire "is it a different species" discussion is missing the point, because their protection status isn't based on them being a different biological species, so the initial claim of "pretending they are a different species" already doesn't make sense.
Until orcas learn how to teleport is not probable that they would mate with another whale that will never share the same space with them at the same time. Not speaking about the different size, "culture" and language that could be an obstacle if they would eventually meet. This planet is big enough to have more than one species of orca adapted to different habitats. If you lose one, don't expect the other taking its place in the same ecosystem necessarily.
They haven't. It's a population of Orcas, even Canadian government sources explicitly label it as being Orcinus orca (i.e. Orcas, no special biological species).
Look up Southern Resident Orca