TWO brand new Bigg's killer whale calves: T46B8 & T49A7

Amidst all the excitement about the unusual visitors T419, T420, and T421, we haven't had to chance to share the news of not one but TWO brand new Bigg's killer whale calves seen for the first time within the last week!

Pictured here is one of the new mom-calf pairs, seen by our sightings assistant and Puget Sound Express naturalist Brooke in Admiralty Inlet on March 14th (the day it was first seen, top) and Possession Sound on March 15th (bottom). This is 38 year-old T46B Raksha with her eight documented calf which has received the designation T46B8. With her oldest three daughters already having calves of their own, it's getting hard to keep up with this very prolific family!

The other new baby, first seen on March 11th, came to 40 year-old T49A Nan. Being her seventh known offspring, the calf has been designated T49A7.

Amazingly, only one calf has been lost between these two mothers! That's 14 living sons and daughters from just 2 reproductive females. It's a testament to their incredible skills as leaders of their matrilines, and probably also to the abundance food resources that have been available to them over the last couple of decades coinciding with their reproductive years.