Did you know that some K-Pod alphanumerics were given out of order?

With news of a new calf traveling with K-Pod in Puget Sound this week, we thought it was the perfect time to share a Throwback Thursday post with a unique, lesser known piece of Southern Resident killer whale history. Most whales born into the population are given the next number in line for their pod, but there have been a couple of exceptions to that rule, and this calf may well be the next one. K45 was born in 2021, but K46 was born in 1974! Here's why:

Original OBI post shared in 2023:

In 2022, K20 Spock gave birth to the first successful calf in K-Pod since 2011, a daughter designated K45. You might think the next K-Pod baby would be the next number in line, but K46 has in fact already been taken! This "Meet the Whale" post takes a look back at the little-known K46.

As Michael Bigg and his colleagues began observing Salish Sea orcas in the 1970s, some family relationships seemed immediately obvious and would prove to hold up over decades of observation and even future genetic analysis. But some sub-groups were puzzling and took more time to accurately place within their population. The K18 matriline was one such group.

In the early years, the K18s (along with the K30s) were seen traveling with L-Pod, and thus were originally given "L" designations. In 1977, however, they started traveling with K-Pod, and eventually were also acoustically determined to use K-Pod's call repertoire. Researchers weren't initially sure how to handle this, based on the continued observation, decided to officially "switch" the designation of those L-Pod whales over to K-Pod. To avoid future confusion, those original numbers - L17, L18, L19, L30, L40, and L46 - were not reused, and thus do not occur within the Southern Resident genealogy. Instead, the numbers K17, K18, K19, K30, K40, and K46 were assigned, even though it meant some alphanumerics were given out of order.

The exact familial relationships between the K18s and K30s remained uncertain, too, though K46 was young enough to be confirmed the calf of K18 Kiska. Like L14 Cordy who we met last time, K46 was lucky enough to be born at the right time to just avoid being taken into captivity, but sadly would only live until 1981, dying at the young age of seven. The sex of K46 was never determined.

The K18s would continue to be wandering whales; in the early 2000s I would see K40 Raggedy and K21 Cappuccino spend the entirety of the summer season with J-Pod on more than one occasion. In fact, it was something we would end up seeing from nearly every K-Pod matriline at one point or another.

Sadly, with the death of K21 in 2021, the K18 matriline came to an end. For those who never met them, it might be easy to forget these whales ever existed, but in addition to remembering their stories, their legacy will live via the unusual order of the K-Pod alphanumeric designations. As a result, the next calf born into K-Pod won't be K46, but will be K47.