A new study suggests southern resident killer whales may socialise with each other based on age and gender, with younger whales and females more sociable than other groups. The research, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, also found that as the whales got older, the more they were pushed to the outskirts of the social group, maintaining fewer friendships.
Patterns of physical contact – one of the social interactions the study measured – suggest that younger whales and females play a central social role in the group. The older the whale, the less central they became.
The southern resident killer whales are a critically endangered population in the Pacific Ocean. The use of the drone in this study was under a research permit issued by the US National Department of Marine and Fisheries, and all pilots were licensed under the US Federal Aviation Administration.
