Incredibly rare population of orcas discovered off Pacific island: 'Mind-blowing'
EXCLUSIVE: Orcas are known for their distinct markings, but this population photographed off the coast of Fiji are completely different.
An incredibly rare population of orcas with a unique pattern not seen anywhere else in the world has been described for the first time. The elusive pod is so rarely seen it's only been photographed once around its Pacific Island habitat.
“Blown away” is how the world’s leading authority on orcas said she felt when she was sent a picture of the animals. “There were no visible saddle patches on these orca,” Dr Ingrid Visser told Yahoo News as her research was published in Biodiversity Journal.
Orca, also known as killer whales, are known for their distinct black colouring broken up with white patches. But look carefully at a picture of an orca and you’ll notice every one has a grey blotch under its dorsal fin called the saddle patch.
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But of the five animals documented in the Fijian pod three had no saddle patches at all, and two had very faint markings. The first image of the group was taken by wildlife photographer and explorer David Cothran in 2006. And Yahoo has published his picture in high-resolution for the first time.
Moment wildlife photographer spots unique orca group
It was a clear morning when Cothran and the crew spotted the pod. Their boat was cruising on the southwest side of Fiji’s largest island Viti Levu during an eight-month voyage from Easter Island to Papua New Guinea.
“I’d seen killer whales a lot, so ordinarily a sighting wouldn’t be particularly thrilling to me. But I was aware that killer whales in the tropics are particularly rare,” he recalled.
But despite having travelled to 65 countries on wildlife photography expeditions, he’d never seen anything like these though.
“They were rapidly moving through the water. So I don’t think their markings were something I noticed immediately,” he continued.
There have been 11 other sightings of orca in Fiji’s waters, and all but the pod Cothran and his colleagues photographed appear to have regular markings.
Related: Race to save endangered orca population from starvation
Almost nothing known about strange Fijian orca pod
Dr Visser told Yahoo she’s seen orca with slightly obtuse saddle patches, but never completely without them.
Other than the single appearance the Fijian orcas made in 2006, nothing else about the population has been studied.
“That’s what’s so fascinating, we know nothing about them other than these photographs. We have no idea if this group is the only one in the world that looks like this, or are they part of a bigger population,” she said.
Some orca populations are known to almost exclusively eat fish, while others eat mammals including seals. But when Cochran photographed the orca they weren’t feeding so it’s unknown what they prefer.
“We have no idea about their social structure, other than what we see in the photos. There’s an adult male, presumably travelling with adult females, but possibly sub-adult males. And that’s it,” Visser said.
“What you see is what you get. It’s mind-blowing that in this day and age, you have animals of that size and we know nothing about them.”
Dr Visser and Cochran are now working to secure funding so they can travel to Fiji and find out more about the population.
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