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Eavesdropping on orcas: love, grief, and family

The Wild with Chris Morgan

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The Cultural Drift of Orca Pod Calls

Orca pods, like the AK pod, exhibit cultural evolution through 'cultural drift' where the pod's calls change over time. This shift in calls is influenced as members split into separate pods, leading to variations in the calls passed down through generations. Through traditional learning, grandmothers and mothers in the pod convey essential survival information along with family calls. The presence of a grandmother in a pod positively impacts the survival rate of calves, showing the importance of intergenerational knowledge transfer in maintaining the pod's culture and survival strategies.

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