UPDATE: C25 did indeed survive its first two years and has been named Ta-aack! -January 2007

UPDATE: Quadra's calf, a newborn before her death, has been seen being cared for by Lama/C8, Quadra's mother. ID number as yet unknown. -November 2006

UPDATE: Quadra/C21 has been found dead by fishermen near Prince Rupert; she was seen with a newborn calf before death. The calf's status is unknown. -August 2006

The C6 Matriline is certainly not as well known as their A-Pod counterparts. Actually, most of the Northern Residents are overshadowed by the A-Pod whales, who are not only more common and more friendly with boats, but are usually easier to recognize. But that doesn't mean the other matrilines don't have colourful histories and interesting whales in them; the C6 Matriline is no different. For example, Weynton, an adult male in the pod, taught researchers about the long-term effects of major fin injuries. We know more about their biological fathers than any other pod, and Lama is one of the most successful mothers in the population, with 4 living children.

The matriline shares an almost identical language with the closely-related D-Pod. While researchers use the orca dialects to tell pods apart, it took quite a while to sort out C and D pods! This is how we know the two pods are closely related. Another unusual fact about C-Pod is that the two matrilines in the pod (C6, this one, and C10) spend very little time with each other. Usually, matrilines in the same pod spend lots of time together, but these two families were only encountered together in 20% of our meetings with them.

Like many of the lesser-known pods, C6 Matriline was first sighted in 1973 lead by a female who would never be named. Harder to identify and less common, these harder-to-find matriarchs rarely were known well enough by researchers to have names. In 1973, the matriline consisted of matriarch C4, her presumed brothers Booker and C7, her son C1, her daughter Ivory, and Ivory's first baby Weynton.
Predictably, things have changed a lot since then. All of the unnamed whales passed away, as did Booker and, recently, Weynton. When C4 passed away, her daughter Ivory took up the reigns as the head of the family. Ivory would have four more kids, 3 of whom are alive today. Her eldest daughter, Lama, has become one of the best mothers in the study. Lama has five kids (Kisameet, Virago, Quadra, Diver and C25), and has never lost a calf in its infancy.

Currently, the matriline has 8 whales in it. All of them were seen by researchers at OrcaLab in 2005, but they didn't spend much time in Johnstone Strait that year, which is unusual for them. Because of this, researchers had difficulties getting the study done on them, and therefore, we aren't sure if Lama's newest baby survived it's first year. We'll know more when the Blackfish Sounder is published this summer. Two males in the pod, Kisameet and Squally, began to sprout in 2004. When they're fully grown, the family will have three large male fins (including already full grown male Hunter).

In early summer 2006, tragedy struck the pod with young Quadra's death. The 12 year old female was found by fishermen, floating dead near Prince Rupert, with severe trauma, most likely from a boat collision. Quadra is Lama's only known calf to die.