{"id":12819,"date":"2012-05-24T20:00:13","date_gmt":"2012-05-25T03:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/?p=12819"},"modified":"2013-04-29T19:20:44","modified_gmt":"2013-04-30T03:20:44","slug":"lecture-on-killer-whales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/2012\/05\/24\/lecture-on-killer-whales\/","title":{"rendered":"Lecture On Killer Whales"},"content":{"rendered":"

This evening I attended a free lecture on Antarctic Killer Whales at the Natural History Museum<\/a> in Balboa Park<\/a>. It was presented by Robert Pitman<\/a> and John Durban<\/a>, two members of NOAA<\/a>‘s Southwest Fisheries Science Center<\/a> here in La Jolla. They were part of the BBC documentary team that travelled to the Antarctic to video killer whales for the “Frozen Planet<\/a>” series on the Discovery Channel.<\/p>\n

It was a fascinating lecture and I learned more about killer whales in one hour than I had in dozens of visits to SeaWorld. I never knew that there are at least three, and possibly as many as five, different species of killer whale, and that, like elephant herds, killer whale pods are matriarchal.<\/p>\n

The presenters also talked about how carefully planning the orcas are in their feeding habits, that it is a very precise, group method, and that each species feeds on it’s own type of prey, be that fish, very specific seals or smaller minke whales.<\/p>\n

The single fact that probably surprised and amazed me the most was to learn that while SeaWorld’s killer whales live to be around 20, which I thought was long, those in the wild, depending on species and conditions, can live to be as much as 80 years-old, with some females living to be 100. There are some killer whales swimming around the southern oceans who have been around since before World War I.<\/p>\n

After the lecture I spoke with Robert Pitman and his wife, who occasionally accompanies him on his yearly month-long trips to the Antarctic, about the killer whales that SeaWorld has in its parks. He said that while he doesn’t like that the animals are kept in captivity in such a way, he also recognizes that it is important in that it is the only opportunity that most people will ever get to see one in person and that it creates enough of an interest, especially in youth, to learn more about them.<\/p>\n

I came away from this evening’s presentation appreciating killer whales much more than I already had. Plus we got a cool, free “Killer Whales” poster of which I took three. (They had plenty.)<\/p>\n

\"Natural <\/a>
Natural History Museum <\/div> <\/div>
\"Main <\/a>
Main entrance atrium <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Allosaurus <\/a>
Allosaurus in the atrium <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Entering <\/a>
Entering the theater <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Inside <\/a>
Inside the theater <\/div> <\/div>
\"Lecture <\/a>
Lecture title <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Robert <\/a>
Robert Pitman and John Durban <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Killer <\/a>
Killer Whales Poster <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This evening I attended a free lecture on Antarctic Killer Whales at the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. It was presented by Robert Pitman and John Durban, two members of NOAA‘s Southwest Fisheries Science Center here in La Jolla. They were part of the BBC documentary team that travelled to the Antarctic to video … <\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[180,199,101,178],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1s2SN-3kL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1002,"url":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/2010\/08\/03\/killer-whales-at-seaworld\/","url_meta":{"origin":12819,"position":0},"title":"Killer Whales at SeaWorld","date":"August 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Stopped at the Killer Whales while walking around SeaWorld with my mom. Here, four of them are swimming laps upside down.","rel":"","context":"In "Fauna"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/Four-Killers-lo-res.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1592,"url":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/2010\/09\/07\/one-lap-around-seaworld\/","url_meta":{"origin":12819,"position":1},"title":"One Lap Around SeaWorld","date":"September 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Walked around SeaWorld once with my mom today. Watched a couple of Killer Whales being trained. Little did we know that two hours after we watched them one of the Killer Whales, Sumar, would die.","rel":"","context":"In "Entertainment"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/SeaWorld01-lo-res.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8677,"url":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/2011\/09\/17\/flip-nicklins-whales\/","url_meta":{"origin":12819,"position":2},"title":"Flip Nicklin’s Whales","date":"September 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"After the Plaza de Panama Project tour, the Veterans Museum and the Zoo, I went to the San Diego Natural History Museum and met up with Bryan, Heather and Lauren for an evening presentation called \"Among Giants: A Life with Whales\" by National Geographic whale photographer and San Diego native,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Balboa Park"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/SDNHM-Flip-Nicklin01-09-17-11-lo-res.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2209,"url":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/2010\/10\/04\/walking-at-seaworld-on-a-drizzly-morning\/","url_meta":{"origin":12819,"position":3},"title":"Walking At SeaWorld On A Drizzly Morning","date":"October 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Walked once around SeaWorld with my mom on a rainy morning. Stopped and watched a training session with the Killer Whales.","rel":"","context":"In "Family"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/SeaWorld01-10-04-10-lo-res.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12213,"url":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/2012\/03\/29\/dinosaur-lecture-by-jack-horner\/","url_meta":{"origin":12819,"position":4},"title":"Dinosaur Lecture By Jack Horner","date":"March 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Was fortunate enough to attend an evening lecture and book-signing by world-renowned paleontologist Dr. Jack Horner at the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. The event had sold out within a couple of days. The presentation lasted a little over an hour and covered mainly infant and juvenile\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Balboa Park"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/SDNHM-Jack-Horner01-03-29-12-lo-res.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14676,"url":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/2013\/08\/17\/ethics-lecture-on-drones-and-uavs\/","url_meta":{"origin":12819,"position":5},"title":"Ethics Lecture On Drones And UAVs","date":"August 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Attended another really good lecture at The Center for Ethics in Science and Technology at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park. This one focused on the benefits and risks of military, law enforcement and civilian uses of unmanned aerial vehicles. The first half of the evening began\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Balboa Park"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Drones-and-UAVs-Ethics-Lecture01-08-17-13-lo-res.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12819"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12819"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12832,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12819\/revisions\/12832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pacsworlds.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}