Localizing Vocalizations in southern resident killer whales: A look at Gender Differences
The southern resident killer whales (Orcinus orca), known as J, K, and L pods, forage in the inland and coastal waters of Washington State and British Columbia. The social and acoustic associations characterize the relatedness of this population. A pod is a primary social unit made up of stable matrilines that associate regularly (>50% of observation time), and emigration of males or females hasn’t been observed (Yurk et al., 2002). These stable kin groups are believed to share a unique repertoire of discrete call types; and pods that are acoustically related and share parts of these vocal traditions are called an acoustic clan (Ford, 1991). A community is when pods have frequent associations with one or more pods and have different distributions in relation to other communities (Ford, 1987). Hence, J, K, and L pods socially make up the southern resident community (about 90 whales) and are acoustically know as the J clan, distinguishing them from the northern resident community of 16pods (about 200 whales) and acoustically known as A, G, and R clans (Ford 1991
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