Bare Facts: Female ~ Born est.1941 ~ Mother Unknown ~ Father Unknown ~ Children Pulteney, Nimpkish, Simoom ~ ID Straight fin; very pointed tip; bends slightly at tip; faint finger marking on saddle

Scimitar, or A12, has been the matriarch of her matriline as long as we've known them. Her name comes from the shape of her fin, which is fairly tall for a female.
Her saddle patch is the most distinctive in the family, as well as the only open one, meaning it has some black in it.
Scimitar was born around 1941, which means she was over the age of 30 when we first met her. She has had three children that we know of: Pulteny (A31) around 1958, Nimpkish (A33) around 1971, and Simoom (A34) in 1975. Simoom is the only of the three that was born during the study, and therefore she's the only one we're certain about. However, Nimpkish and Pulteney are probably Scimitar's.
Scimitar seems to be a good mother, because to our knowledge she never lost a calf, and successfully raised her three children to adults. She's only lost one of them; Pulteney, who outlived his life expectancy.
The A12s are often viewed as the perfect orca family. Nimpkish seems to be a great uncle to Simoom's kids, especially to Echo, while Pulteney (when he was alive) spent most of his time close to Scimitar.
Scimitar also has a rather interesting nickname! She is known to researchers sometimes as the 'Granny from Hell'. This is because when Dall's porpoises bug her, as they do from time to time, Scimitar takes action! She harasses them and sometimes attacks them. Once she drove a porpoise right up onto a beach, and another time she separated the porpoise from her calf.
Scimitar is around 60 years old now, and therefore she's surpassed the life expectancy of female orcas, which is around 50 years. However, she could be around for many more years to come; some female orcas live well into their 80s! At around 64 years, Scimitar is the oldest whale in the A1 pod.