Luna (killer Whale) - Early Life

Early Life

Luna was born into a population known as the Southern Resident Killer Whale community. This population, which consisted of approximately 80 killer whales at the time of Luna's birth, has been extensively studied since the 1970s. Scientists have learned to recognize each individual in the population by photo-identification, and can thus track individual movements and social relationships year after year. Thus it is known that Luna was born into a group known as the L2 matriline, which consisted of the matriarch, Grace (L2), Luna's uncle, Orcan (L39), Gaia (L78), Wavewalker (L88), and Luna's mother, Splash (L67). The L2 matriline belongs to a larger group called L-Pod. Southern Resident killer whales of both sexes form extremely stable family bonds and remain with their mothers throughout their lives.

Luna was first spotted on the morning of September 19, 1999, near the San Juan Islands of Washington, as a newborn alone with his mother. The first person to see him was the operator of a whale watching business, who immediately noticed that the behaviour of the pair was unusual. Killer whale mothers are usually surrounded by other members of their pod when they give birth, and are inseparable from their infants who swim closely by their sides. Luna and his mother were in proximity but appeared relatively disassociated from each other, and there were no other whales nearby. Later that day, Luna was seen leaving his mother to follow whales from K pod and did not reconnect with her for two or three days. Kiska (K18), one of the whales in K pod, had recently given birth to a stillborn calf and may have been lactating when she encountered Luna.

Southern Resident killer whales spend summers near the coast of British Columbia, Canada and Washington, leave the area each fall, and return in the spring. It is not known where they spend the winter. The temporary separation of Splash and Luna is so unusual amongst killer whales that it led to speculation about whether Splash was indeed Luna's mother, however they reappeared together near the San Juan Islands in the spring of 2000 and appeared to have a normal mother-calf relationship throughout the summer. On September 23, Luna was seen leaving the area with the rest of his relatives, and beside his uncle, Orcan.

Luna was given the name "L98" at birth according to the scientific naming conventions for resident killer whales. A Seattle newspaper held a naming contest in 2000 which resulted in L98 being given the common name Luna, Latin for moon. At the time, it was not known if Luna was male or female. The contest winner, an 8-year-old girl from Bellingham, explained, "The orca whale explores the ocean like the moon explores the Earth and that is why his/her name is Luna."