Scientists want new name for mammal-eating Orcas (Anchorage, Beluga: school, live)

[Glitch]

Scientists want new name for mammal-eating Orcas

ANCHORAGE — If whale expert John K.B. Ford has his way, school children one day will study a kind of North Pacific killer whale that preys on warm-blooded creatures — mostly harbor seals and sea lions, but also gray whales and seabirds.

They roam as far north as the Arctic Ocean and are now known as “transients” to distinguish them from fish-eating “resident” killer whales.

Ford and colleagues from Alaska to California want transient killer whales to be declared their own species, and they want them to have a new name: Bigg’s killer whales, in honor of Michael Bigg, the researcher whose observations off British Columbia and Washington state led to the identification of transients and whose mentoring inspired a generation of researchers still uncovering the mysteries of the animal at the top of the marine food chain.

Source: Scientists want new name for mammal-eating orcas | Juneau Empire - Alaska's Capital City Online Newspaper

"Bigg's Killer whales" just does not have the right feel for a critter that eats mammals and birds, and "transients" does not cut it at all. It makes them sound as if they were homeless.

We need a better name for these critters.

A good name was taken a couple years ago when they found a 13 million year-old skull of a giant sperm whale that ate other whales: Leviathan melvillei (in honor of Herman Melville's book "Moby Dick.").

Source: Giant Whale-Eating Whale Found : Discovery News

[Magic Qwan]

Very interesting...

Do these whales have their own genetic structure apart from resident whales and do they interbreed with resident whales?

[dcarrot]

Originally Posted by Magic Qwan

Very interesting...

Do these whales have their own genetic structure apart from resident whales and do they interbreed with resident whales?

The article says they do not breed with residents or a third north Pacific group that stay well off shore.


And it's very common to name a "new" species after a prominent scientist whose work led to the scientific splitting of the original species.

[Rance]

Suddenly...killer whales eat meat?

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by Rance

Suddenly...killer whales eat meat?

Maybe the scientists thought for a moment that Moby Dick's big mammal-eating mamma was a vegan?

[starlite9]

Another endangered animal to shut down oil drilling!

BTW, if they just discovered them, how do they know if there is or isn't "TeePee Creeping" between the travelers and local pods....

People do it all the time, it's where all the traveling salesman and farmer daughters jokes come from!

[Marty Van Diest]

They also said that Cook Inlet Belugas don't travel out of the inlet or breed with other groups of belugas. A little research proves that they don't know this to be true and in fact it is most likely not true.

Unless there is some physical reason that they can't interbreed then I remain dubious.

There are different groups of the same species that act differently and live apart that still could interbreed. For example, brown bears in South East Alaska don't interbreed with interior grizzlies either.

Humans are humans worldwide and there are lot of us, and different groups look a lot different then others...but we are all the same species.

Honestly though, I think youpers should be classified differently.