Ted Cheeseman

Ted Cheeseman

Oct 08, 2021

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Whale family trees and social relationships! The remarkable case of humpback whale "Heather" CRC-13712

Family tree of the humpback whale "Heather" CRC-13712. Credit: Humpback Whales of the Salish Sea catalog, Tasli Shaw

Here you see the family tree of the famous pioneering whale Heather, one of the early explorers of the Salish Sea as humpback whales rediscovered and reestablished populations in these waters where they’d been hunted out completely in the first decade of the 20th century. Last year Heather’s 2006 calf Split Fluke and Split Fluke's 2017 calf Valiant were seen traveling with each other on multiple occasions, one of just a few documented encounters of a mom with her offspring from previous years.

Many of our research collaborators have been tracking relationships and associations between individual whales, in some cases for decades and as in the case of Heather, since the founding of local populations. This project, once fully funded, will enable a robust and collaboratively accessible way to track, visualize and analyze these relationships.

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  • Heather Reser
    Heather ReserBacker
    I love that there’s a humpback named “Heather” ☺️ Looking forward to learning more about her & other whales’ relationships and associations through this research!
    Oct 08, 2021
  • Ted Cheeseman
    Ted CheesemanResearcher
    Heather, your whaley sister is truly a special whale :-)
    Oct 15, 2021

About This Project

Humpback whales were once wrongly considered solitary. However, recent research has shown that they can develop complex and enduring social relationships when hunting schooling prey. These magnificent whales migrate thousands of miles between winter breeding areas and summer feeding areas with fluid social dynamics. Building from a database of thousands of North Pacific humpbacks, our goal is to uncover associations between individuals over seasons and years.

Blast off!

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