Scientists Tested 139 Wild Killer Whales — And Their DNA Told a Completely Different Story

Scientists Tested 139 Wild Killer Whales — And Their DNA Told a Completely Different Story My new book, 16 animals we grew up believing in and what the DNA really said: https://www.gideonmarsh.com Two kinds of killer whale share the same green water between Seattle and Vancouver Island, and in over 50 years of watching them nobody has ever seen them mix, they just turn away from each other. In this one I go through the DNA that explains it: 139 whales read in 2010, then full genomes in 2024, and the answer was no interbreeding at all, with these lines separated by a couple hundred thousand years. The part that really got to me is the Southern Residents, down to 74 whales, cut off for about 500 years, and out of 51 calves with known fathers, 44 were sired by just two males, Ruffles and Mega. I will be honest about where I land on this, the committee falling just short of the two thirds vote in 2024 feels like paperwork getting in the way, because the seal hunters next door have doubled since 1990 and the salmon eaters have barely moved since 1976, and that is not luck, that is two separate animals being called one name.