Video: How can animals like orcas that breathe voluntarily sleep? It's a team thing

We know that killer whales are unusually social animals. Even the way that orcas sleep is social, something shared. It’s something beautiful to behold.

I was still sipping my morning coffee one of the …

For the Lummi people, returning Miami's captive orca to the Salish Sea is about saving family

Second of two parts:

In many regards, the conditions of Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut’s confinement in a concrete pool have been something of a perverse joke, down to her stage name of “Lolita.”

At the time of …

Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut, the last surviving captive Southern Resident orca, has a shot at returning home

First of two parts:

Her Lummi name is Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut (pronounced SKA-li CHUKH-teNOT). It references the cove on Whidbey Island where she was captured as a calf in August 1970. She has other …

Watch: Southern Resident orcas make up for lost time with September visit to the Salish Sea

FRIDAY HARBOR, Washington—The summer of 2021 continued a trend of decreasing presence by Southern Resident orcas in the Salish Sea, one that began in 2016 and has seemingly deepened every year since. …

Another sad marker of the Southern Residents’ decline: Beloved orca K21 Cappuccino dies at 35

FRIDAY HARBOR, Washington—K21 Cappuccino was a gregarious, curious, and kindly orca. He liked to engage in play behaviors—breaching, spyhopping, slapping his pectoral fins. And he was generally quite …