From Culture to Species
Biggs (Transient) orca: mammal eaters
Resident orca: fish eaters
A study by Morin et al., was published in March 2024 regarding "Revised Taxonomy of North Pacific killer whales" and stating that Biggs orcas and Resident orcas deserve species status based on genetic, physical and behavioral differences between Biggs and Residents (1).
In June 2024, a rejection from the Puget Sound Institute (2), seemed almost absurd because so many scientists agreed that it was time for species status and I agreed with them at the time. Two of the authors of the proposal are on the Taxonomy Committee so they were not involved in the vote. Another issue with the proposal was that more data were needed on different orca ecotypes around the world.
This morning during my shift at OrcaLab, I was patiently waiting for the Northern Resident (NR) calls to ring through my ears any second. It was a deafening silence for four hours so my mind got to thinking about the culture of the Biggs versus the NRs, as I had seen both ecotypes recently. The differences between them include language, traditions, behavior, foraging style, prey preferences, and slight morphological differences. Most of their differences are due to environmental influence which could stem from their differences in diets. Biggs are a little larger, they hunt in silence because their prey is acoustically sensitive, they only vocalize after a successful hunt. NRs are not scared to make a ruckus. They vocalize quite often and use echolocation frequently for foraging and sensing their surroundings. Biggs and NRs do no not have any overlapping calls.
It is a big evolutionary feat to become a new species and takes some extreme form of divergence to begin with but it seems to me that if we call them different species, we are essentially taking away the significance of their culture. If we consider orcas different species, we run the risk of ignoring their cultural differences. Since when is culture synonymous to species? Humans are extremely culturally diverse but we are all Homo sapiens. Why would we want to take away the cultural diversity of the orca?
Are we just trying to animalize orcas because we don't understand them?
Disclaimer: I am not a geneticist or an evolution biologist. These are my passing thoughts. With more research, deep dives, and conversations these thoughts could change and develop. I have also not yet touched on my thoughts regarding breeding in captivity and reproductive viability of hybrid orcas. I will touch more on that in the future.
References
(1) https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.231368
Follow my journey on instagram.
