Orca travel days can be long with wild Orca comfortably able to travel between 100 to 300 kilometres during their days foraging. Today was a great example as we arrived in The Patch to a very relaxed Alki and family cruising to the west with all pod members seeming to be very content after the last ten or so days of plentiful food. Making the most of every good fishing day, these apex predators can pack on the pounds during an abundance of prey availability. It results in weight gain and enables the mother Orca who are nursing young calves to sustain themselves with the nutrition they need to look after both mum and bub. Today baby Matilda was playful as she enjoyed time with Grace and Maddison as a play session began amongst the youngsters.
Spy hops were practiced and a few close approaches enjoyed as they came over for some fun. It was interesting to see that Maddison has a new scar and bite wound on her fluke and peduncle which would most likely be from rough play or discipline from other Orca. Thankfully, these wounds tend to heal quickly but we will continue to monitor the healing process during each future interaction with Maddison and see how quickly her healthy and strong body can mage recuperating that area. It appeared most of the family pods took today for some travel and exploration and hopefully they had some success during their searching. Alki and her pod were more than happy travelling many miles today and giving The Patch a respite in hopes prey would once again return to these hunting grounds with the Orca out of that location for a while.
