GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist and her five parrots are currently relocating to Germany, where she will continue writing her blog while also writing a book and learning German. (Meanwhile, her parrots will continue to nibble on her extensive personal library.) If you appreciate GrrlScientist's writing, you can help pay her living expenses by hiring her to "blog" your conference, speak at your club or write articles for your publication (or by clicking on the Paypal button below). If you read an essay on this blog that you especially enjoyed, please nominate it for inclusion in 
tags: Antarctica, Orcas, Killer Whales, Orcinus orca, wildlife, streaming video
In this video, we are given a look at a pod of Orcas -- "killer whales" -- Orcinus orca, that live in the Antarctic. I have spent many happy hours in Friday Harbor at the University of Washington's research station, watching Orcas and talking to the biologists who study them. These biologists were fairly certain that the Friday harbor Orcas are a different subspecies or species from those orcas that live in more open waters, such as the ones you see in this video. The reasons? At the time, they didn't have DNA data, but they did have hundreds or thousands of hours of behavioral data: range (Friday Harbor Orcas lived close to the coasts and sounds between Washington and Alaska, while oceanic Orcas have much larger ranges) and diet (Friday Harbor Orcas eat only salmon while oceanic Orcas depend upon seals and other marine animals). [6:12]
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Comments
You have got my vote. Good luck!
Posted by: Yelli | July 13, 2009 8:26 AM
It is very interesting to watch the social interaction of Orcas because they are so smart. Sometimes they get together in Super-pods to have social interactions
Posted by: orca whale | October 20, 2009 4:21 PM