We’ve been getting some great questions from our visitors about Orca O319 and Orcas in general. Here is a sampling of the questions we’ve gotten, along with our answers:

What does “Orca” mean?

The scientific name of Orcas is Orcinus orca: “Orcinus” means “kingdom of the dead” or “belonging to Orcus” (a Roman god of the underworld), and “orca” was the name that ancient Romans gave these animals, possibly borrowing it from a similar greek word which referred to a whale species.

How big is the Orca’s brain?

Roughly four times larger than a human’s brain.

How much did the Orca weigh?

The skull alone (bones only, no flesh) weighs 72 lbs, closer to 85 lbs with the mandibles (lower jaws). We don’t have an exact weight for our Orca before we began the necropsy, but adult Orcas can weigh between 5,700 and 16,000 lbs. At birth, Orcas weigh 350-500 lbs. O319 was not a fully grown adult, so he probably weighed on the low end of average adult weights.

Have there been any bleaching agents applied to the bones?

The bones all soaked in dilute sodium perborate, which is a powder that release hydrogen peroxide when mixed with water. The skull was placed on the roof of the Academy for one month to allow the sun to naturally bleach it. Being in the Piazza will likely bleach the bones further, as they’re exposed to ultraviolet light. We don’t use actual bleach, as it degrades the bones.

How long will it take to put the skeleton together?

We will be articulating the skeleton from May 8^th through June 9^th (1 month). After that, staff members from Ornithology and Mammalogy will work on finishing touches. The entire skeleton should be done by the end of June.

Does the Orca have a name? Will we name it?

Our Orca is referenced as O319, its scientific identification number. We will not give it a personal name because it is a research specimen. It will always be O319.

Are Orcas seen specifically in this area?

There is currently a pod of transient Orcas in Monterey Bay, seen hunting different species of marine mammals (sea lions, elephant seals, harbor seals, dolphins, porpoises, and gray whale calves). A pod of Orcas has also been seen in the Gulf of the Farallones in the past.

What will we be using as “cartilage” on the skeleton?

We will be using silicone.

How do we attach the bones together?

We will be using a variety of metal rods, glues, and wires to articulate the skeleton.

If you have a question about the articulation process or about Orca O319, leave a comment or come visit us at the Orca Lab Tuesdays through Sundays!

Laura Wilkinson
Curatorial Assistant and Specimen Preparator
Ornithology and Mammalogy

All marine mammal stranding activities were conducted under authorization by the National Marine Fisheries Service through a Stranding Agreement issued to the California Academy of Sciences and MMPA/ESA Permit No. 932-1905/MA-009526.

Now that I’ve told O319’s story, it’s time to get to the fun part – the articulation!

We started on Wednesday, May 8^th by sorting through the vertebrae and grouping them by type from head to tail: cervical, thoracic, lumbar, and caudal. Once sorted, they were then ordered based on size measurements taken of each vertebrae.

Since O319 was still a young animal (by orca standards), the vertebral epiphyses had not yet fused to the vertebrae. This means that each vertebra had two separated plates (which Lee Post refers to as “cookies”) that needed to be matched up. We had a fun task of sorting through the epiphyses and matching each up to the correct end of each vertebra. Each epiphysis can only fit correctly in one orientation on one specific side of a vertebra, so once you get a match it “clicks” into place. We then glued the epiphyses on to the vertebrae, secured them with rubber bands, and let them dry overnight.

 Next, we did some fine-tuning of each bone, cleaning off any remaining sand and small bits of dried-on grease.

 After all the vertebrae were successfully numbered, matched with their epiphyses, and cleaned, we pulled all of the rib bones out with the goal of matching each pair together, distinguishing which ribs went on the  left and right sides of the Orca, and putting them in order from head to tail. It was surprisingly easier than it sounded. Potential pairs of ribs were pushed together with the curved ends facing each other. If the ends “kissed,” it meant that the ribs were both the same size and should therefore be a matched pair.

 It’s been really fun working on this project on the main floor. Having a chance to chat with the public and explain a process that they’ve likely never seen before, as well as teach them about Orcas, has been a wonderful experience for not only our staff and volunteers, but also our visitors. We all cycle through shifts of working on the bones and talking with the public, so everyone that you chat with should have a lot of information about the articulation process.

 Come by the Orca Lab Tuesdays through Sundays, chat with our staff and volunteers, and see what we’re up to next! If you have any questions about the project, leave a comment here and we’ll be sure to respond.

Laura Wilkinson
Curatorial Assistant and Specimen Preparator
Ornithology and Mammalogy

All marine mammal stranding activities were conducted under authorization by the National Marine Fisheries Service through a Stranding Agreement issued to the California Academy of Sciences and MMPA/ESA Permit No. 932-1905/MA-009526.

Continuing on from my last post, Moe made the decision to collect the entire skeleton of offshore Orca 0319, since it was such a rare specimen. This, however, was no easy feat! The beach in the Point Reyes National Seashore where the Orca washed up was a 45 minute hike from our truck, including a trek down a steep hill towards the beach and a climb over a rocky outcrop. So, bringing bones (with some muscle and fat still attached) back over the rocks, up the hill, and along the trail to the truck took a lot of work.

Over a period of 4 days, we were able to get all of the bones back to our lab here at CAS, using some creative methods such as strapping the head of the Orca onto a stretcher and pulling it up the hill.

Even though all of the pieces were brought back from the beach, there was still a lot of work to be done. On the Project Lab blog, I’ve talked about a process called maceration that we use to clean a lot of our skeletons (you can read that here). We have a special large tank for macerating oversized skeletons, which is the tank that we used for the Orca. First, we had to get as much of the remaining tissue off of the bones as possible.

The skeleton was then placed in the maceration tank, where bacteria naturally cleans the bones over time.

Once all tissue was completely macerated off, the bones were soaked in dish soap and dilute ammonia to remove grease. We got them as grease-free as possible before articulation, so that grease would not leak out to the surface of the bones over time.

Next post, I’ll start documenting the actual articulation process, where you can see Lee Post, our staff, and 40 dedicated volunteers put O319 back together!

Laura Wilkinson
Curatorial Assistant and Specimen Preparator
Ornithology and Mammalogy

All marine mammal stranding activities were conducted under authorization by the National Marine Fisheries Service through a Stranding Agreement issued to the California Academy of Sciences and MMPA/ESA Permit No. 932-1905/MA-009526.

In the previous blog post, I wrote about our initial observation and field necropsy of Orca 0319 back in November of 2011. Now, I’ll go over the different types of Orcas, called “ecotypes.”

There are currently 10 forms (“ecotypes”) of Orca recognized. They are all considered to be the same species (Orcinus orca) until proved otherwise by genetic research. In the Eastern North Pacific Ocean, three of these ecotypes occur: resident, transient, and offshore. The three ecotypes look slightly different (distinguishable by their saddle patch and dorsal fin), have different vocalizations, behave differently, and eat different foods.  

Check out this poster from Southwest Fisheries Science Center for a great illustration of the different ecotypes.

Resident

The best‐known form that lives off the coast of Washington and Oregon. The Southern Resident population is protected under the Endangered Species Act. Their saddle patch often has a large black intrusion (‘open’ saddle) not found in other Orcas. Females’ dorsal fins are rounded on top with a pointed trailing edge. They specialize in eating fish, typically salmon.

Transient

A large form that lives in coastal and offshore waters of the North Pacific. Their saddle patch is ’closed’ compared to the Resident forms’ and extends forward past the midline of the dorsal fin. Females’ dorsal fins are generally pointed. They eat mammals such as harbor seals and minke whales.

Offshore

A smaller form that is rarely observed because it occurs mainly over the outer continental shelf of the eastern North Pacific. Some travel between Alaska and Southern California. Their saddle patch is fainter than those of resident and transient forms. Females’ dorsal fins are rounded at the tip and often have nicks. In 2011, using genetic samples from prey remains, researchers determined that their primary diet consists of sharks (Pacific sleeper sharks in that case). The fact that sharks have rough skin explains why offshore Orca teeth are often worn to the gumline.

On Tuesday November 29th, we emailed photos of our Orca to various Orca researchers for possible photo identification. Later that day, Graeme Ellis, research technician at the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, identified the Orca as O319, an offshore animal. O319 was originally sighted in 2002 as a juvenile and had most recently been recorded off the west coast of Vancouver Island in September 2011. Based on the photos, size, and lack of secondary sexual characteristics (curled flukes, large dorsal fin) Graeme Ellis estimated that O319 was approximately 15 years old at the time of death – still not a full adult.

Offshore orcas are a rare ecotype to find washed up on the beach, as they typically sink into the ocean after they die. This fact made Moe decide to collect the entire skeleton so that we could have as much research material as possible available for this animal.

Stay tuned to find out how we collected and cleaned the orca skeleton, leading up to the beginning of our articulation project. We’ve already begun articulating, so be sure to come by the Orca lab in the Piazza (Tuesday through Sunday) to see us in action!

Laura Wilkinson
Curatorial Assistant and Specimen Preparator
Ornithology and Mammalogy

All marine mammal stranding activities were conducted under authorization by the National Marine Fisheries Service through a Stranding Agreement issued to the California Academy of Sciences and MMPA/ESA Permit No. 932-1905/MA-009526.

We have a very exciting project starting this week (May 10th) in the Piazza: an articulation of an orca skeleton. Articulation, or connecting the bones together, is how we display skeletons so that we can see what an animal looks like without all of its other parts (muscle, skin, etc.). It is a process that’s usually done behind the scenes, but we decided it would be a great opportunity for the public to learn about an interesting specimen as well as a unique preparation process. First of all, how did we get this orca skeleton?

In November of 2011, the day after Thanksgiving, we received a call that there was an orca that washed up dead on a beach in Point Reyes National Seashore (Marin County). Moe Flannery, the Collections Manager of Ornithology & Mammalogy (birds and mammals), who coordinates our marine mammal stranding response between Bodega Bay and Año Nuevo State Park, got a team together to go take photographs, measurements, and skin, muscle, and blubber samples that are required for each dead marine mammal stranding.

A team returned the next day to perform a field necropsy, which is an autopsy performed on an animal. There was only time to complete the necropsy and remove the skull, which was then moved up the beach towards the base of the cliffs, to make sure it didn’t wash away with the tide overnight. We keep a part of all specimens (marine mammals, birds, and land mammals), called a “voucher,” for our research collection. In some cases that means the entire skin and skeleton, while in other cases it may only be a wing or skull. Moe knew that she at least wanted to keep the skull of the Orca, which is why it was secured in a safe place overnight.

Stay tuned to read about how we found out about the Orca’s identification number and how we came to the decision to keep the entire skeleton!

Laura Wilkinson
Curatorial Assistant and Specimen Preparator
Ornithology and Mammalogy

All marine mammal stranding activities were conducted under authorization by the National Marine Fisheries Service through a Stranding Agreement issued to the California Academy of Sciences and MMPA/ESA Permit No. 932-1905/MA-009526.

“What’s our time?” Logan asks moving along the rock paths that crisscross the roof of the CAS.

“Two minutes.” Ore, a graduate student, checks his stopwatch. It’s raining and cold and my second bird survey experience has been unexpectedly lucrative.

Half an hour earlier, winding our way through the halls of the research department, I was expecting 30 wet minutes of cloud spotting. Up on the roof in our yellow vests, the team, shielding our binoculars from the downpour, noted the temperature, weather, and wind direction. Logan was already looking around. ‘Can we start yet?’ his impatient hands said as he waited for Ore to set the timer. As soon as Ore gave the go ahead, Logan, a fourteen-year-old volunteer and bird expert, was leading us around the roof spewing names of bird species too fast for me to document.

We moved in a line, with Logan in the front shouting numbers, species, and the species codes of the birds he saw and heard. “It’s actually prime season for bird watching,” Logan explained to me later as he typed in the day’s data. “Lots of spring arrivals and the gulls haven’t left yet. Twenty one species, could have been twenty three if we hadn’t run out of time; good diversity.” He nods. Just seconds after the clock had run out, Logan had pointed straight up, shouting, “Oh man, that was a Mew Gull.” He shook his head, disappointed, and headed off the roof. Once the survey is over no additional birds can be added to the day’s data.

Ore has Logan name all the gulls; he knows the group particularly well. “Gulls, I love them.” Logan laughs and explains that they are a very over-looked group with a lot of rarities.

After a little over a year of conducting the Tuesday morning roof surveys, the CAS team is very familiar with the local birds. I was shocked to see two pairs of Red-tailed Hawks circling the area. Ore pointed to some tall pines, “Oh, that pair of Red-tailed Hawks nest in those trees over there.” The birds were behaving differently in the rain, a lot more vocally active and many were using the roof for shelter. As we made our way around the Dr. Seuss-like domes we heard three Downy Woodpeckers call.

Moe Flannery, the collections manager of the Ornithology and Mammalogy department, started the roof survey to learn which bird species were   utilizing the green roof. The data collected by the CAS team is posted on eBird, an international bird sighting website, used by birders around the world.

The survey has shown that the CAS building has, in many ways, been successfully integrated into the park environment and the green roof is a      huge part of that effort. The roof has provided important winter habitat for migrating birds resting and feeding. Last winter a flock of seventy plus  Kildeer made use of the green roof for at least three weeks. Kildeer need big open areas of vegetation and seemed quite content in Golden Gate   Park. Recently, the team spotted an Oregon Junco flying with nesting material, exciting evidence that the Juncos are back to nest on the roof for a third year. Oregon Juncos are ground nesters and the roof provides a safe haven from predators and people that also occupy the park.

In line with the mission of the CAS to explore, explain and protect, the survey team continues to monitor action on the roof, not just to share information about our local bird species, but also because of their commitment to improve the world we live in.

- Page McCargo

Well, it’s a sunny Sunday in Golden Gate Park.  The weather was warm and pleasant, and the winter birds were active.  My wife Tiffany and I took a stroll up the hill and into the park near Lloyd Lake, where there are often plenty of ducks, gulls, coots, and even a grebe or two.  I had my camera with me since I needed a little practice using my long lens on birds. Although none of these are great photos, they show some of the common species that you can see here in the park:

A couple Song Sparrows (Melospiza melodia) were skulking in the underbrush near Stow Lake.  They are difficult to see, but have a very distinctive pattern of banding on the chest which come to a spot in the center.

Here you can see the Song Sparrow’s streaking pattern very nicely.

And of course, the Dark-eyed Juncos (Junco hyemalis) are common around many footpaths.  This junco was in a group of 4-5 others and feeding on bread and bird feed scraps left on the ground by some earlier hikers.  The Song Sparrows were also with them, but the sparrows were more skiddish and more quickly jumped into the thicket behind them while I got these photos.

Several Ring-necked Ducks (Aythya collaris) have been hanging out in Lloyd Lake, near the 25th Avenue north entrance to the park.  Although the Mallards are still slightly more abundant, the Ring-neck Ducks have been common here this year with over 20 in the lake today.

The Hooded Mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus) were my favorite sighting today.  They are always very spectacular (the male is above), and are great divers.  We often see a pair here on Lloyd Lake, and today there was one male and two females.  The male was pretty cheeky, and allowed us to get a pretty close look and some decent photos.  He aggressively chased two male Mallards away from a patch of weeds where he was diving, despite the fact that he was only a fraction of the Mallards’ size.

Here is a male Hooded Merganser swimming alongside a female.  They stayed closely together most of the time.

I was surprised by how few gulls I saw this morning.  Lloyd Lake is a great place to see Mew Gulls (Larus canus) this time of year, and we got great looks at several.  They are smaller than the Ring-billed or Western Gulls, and have almost no visible marking on the bill.

The much larger Western Gull (Larus occidentalis) was also present (although I took this photo on the Stow Lake boat dock).  These tend to be a little more aggressive than the Mew Gulls, and they respond quickly to the many people who bring bread to feed the ducks.

My wife Tiffany told me that there were Widgeon here too, and this is one of the reasons that we walked up to the lake.  Here is a male American Widgeon (Anas americana) in non-breeding plumage, with the obvious white forehead.  There were only about 3-4 pairs, but they too were relatively easy to see and came pretty close.

We looked for the Wood Ducks (Aix sponsa)  that we often see on the western side of the lake, but we failed to spot them today.  I still haven’t photographed them, and I was hoping to get a nice photo of their head pattern in the sun.  Instead, we saw a lone male Green-winged Teal (Anas crecca) sleeping with its bill tucked into its back feathers.

American Coots (Fulica americana) were common on all of the bodies of water in the park (as usual),

And we got great looks at Pied-billed Grebes (Podilymbus podiceps) on both Lloyd Lake and Stow Lake.

Last but not least (unless you are talking about size) were Anna’s Hummingbirds (Calypte anna).  We saw several out servicing the flowers.  I understand that the Academy is working on upcoming pollination exhibits which will most certainly feature hummingbirds.  Anna’s Hummingbird is a year-round resident that survives well on the parks many flowers, which provide a great source of nectar and pollen.

Another unphotographed highlight would have to be the California Quail (Callipepla californica) that we heard just north of Lloyd Lake.  As we approached the lake, we could hear some scraping in the underbrush, but I was unable to see what was in there.  I figured a junco, towhee, or even a squirrel, and walked on without working too hard to see it.  But later, when we were across the lake, we heard multiple clear “Chi-ca-go” calls of California Quail.  We walked back hoping to photograph one, but alas we were unable to see or even hear them again.  The quail are noteworthy, as I learned at a recent Golden Gate Audubon Conservation Committee Meeting, because California Quail were all but extirpated from the city limits.  There are believed to be only a single family group or “covey” that still lives around the Botanical Garden and Arboretum.  At first I suspected that this could be the same group that had just moved deeper into the park.  But as we walked toward the Academy, we heard another group of quail at the northeast end of Stow Lake – just across Martin Luther King Drive from the Arboretum.  I would still like to get a good look at the covey at Lloyd’s Lake, but it is tentatively great news to me that there may be another group settling there.

Why are the quail disappearing in the city?  It is believed that off-leash dogs are probably the major threat to ground-nesting birds in the city.  As the population rises and as people in the city want dogs for companionship, the impact on ground nesting birds is increasing.  Dogs are also a huge threat to shorebirds – especially the endangered Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus).  So please do your part and keep your dog on a leash unless you are in a designated off-leash area!

It was nice to get the camera out and shoot a few of the common local species.  In just a couple weeks, Gary Sharlow and I will be taking a group of photographers to Crissy Field to teach and practice some tricks for photographing birds in the field.  This will be a part of the adult programming that Gary has been developing, and a potential source of data and images for citizen science projects.

We recently spent a very successful 2-month field trip in the island province of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea surveying birds and collecting samples to screen for various avian diseases.  We had an amazing crew – collaborator David Mindell, Post-doctoral researcher Jerome Fuchs, Berkeley PhD student Zachary Hanna, San Francisco State University Masters Student Molly Dodge, PNG National Museum researcher Bulisa Iova, and the amazing artist Isabella Kirkland.  We spent two months sailing on the SV Dalai, a French-build sloop owned and operated by Bruno and Carmen Montel.

This ship was an excellent way to get around, and the crew and field team were amazing.  We departed from Alotau, Milne Bay Province in September, and returned in November after sailing to Normanby Island, the Amphlet Group, Dawson Island, BudiBudi Atoll, Woodlark Island, Ginetu Island, Gawa Island, and the Trobriand Islands, just to name a few of the key islands.

We captured and sampled over 500 birds, including this Emerald Ground Dove (Chalcophaps indica), and the Collared Kingfisher (Halcyon chloris) below.

Although it may look like I’ve not blogged for a while, this is not so.  We were invited by the New York Times to blog in their very excellent series, Scientist At Work, and this link should direct you to most of our posts from the recent field trip:

http://scientistatwork.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/papua-new-guinea/

Feel free to post comments or questions here, and enjoy!

A couple weeks ago, I got a call because there was a gopher outside staggering around, obviously disoriented, even falling over onto its side. When I found it, it was lethargic and easy to approach and I picked it up and carried it inside without any struggle or fight. It was loaded with fleas. The folks that called suggested that it may have been poisoned. Since catching this one, friends and colleagues have mentioned seeing other sick or dead gophers around this part of Golden Gate Park, suggesting that this may not be an isolated case.  A couple people even suggested that the city may be putting out poison baits to reduce the huge numbers of gophers in the park.

So we did a little asking around to find out whether anyone is using poison in Golden Gate Park, and the answer appears to be an emphatic, “no.” No one in the Academy is using poisons, not even around our precious collections spaces. In fact, the entire park is off limits to toxic herbicides, fungicides, and rodenticides. So we

spoke with our veterinary doctor in the Steinhart Aquarium, Freeland Dunker.

Freeland is very knowledgeable about animal diseases of all sorts, and almost immediately suspected raccoon roundworm, or Baylisascaris procyonis. This is a common roundworm found in a large percentage of raccoons (between 70-100% of west coast urban raccoons are infected with these worms!), and is very likely endemic to the huge population of raccoons in Golden Gate Park and nearby Sunset and Richmond neighborhoods. The worms normally live in raccoon intestinal tracts, and raccoons can shed thousands of eggs in their feces. The eggs are robust in the environment, and can live for a long time in the soil or in a raccoon latrine.

When other species ingest the eggs, the eggs hatch in their intestines and try to find a good place to settle. But since the larvae are not in a raccoon, they don’t find an acceptable place to settle, and they burrow through the intestinal walls and wander around inside the body looking for a place to settle. These wandering larvae cause a disease called larval migrans, or literally, migrating larvae. As these worms burrow through the body of the host, they leave a trail of destruction. Worms often migrate to the eye, brain, and meninges, causing encephalitis, neuroretinitis, central nervous system damage, and death. Our recent sick gopher was likely an advanced case, and probably had the worms in its brain and spinal column.

Baylisascaris larvae, which move through the body of its host leaving a trail of destruction and causing the disease condition known as “larval migrans.”

Although it is extremely rare, cases of Baylisascaris are known in humans. The CDC has a website that discusses Baylisascaris as a potential emerging human disease. Note that 4 of 11 known human cases were from California. All of the human cases were severe or fatal, and often most aggressive in young children. The damage done by migrating worms can be permanent, and neurological damage to the brain and eyes is usually the first sign of infection, and by then, it is usually too late to do anything but prevent additional damage.

Next time we find one of these gophers, we will try to confirm the diagnosis, and report back. Unless you’re a gopher, there’s really not much to worry about.  You can’t catch this directly from gophers, as they are not typical hosts and probably do not shed eggs (but you could catch it from eating gophers…) But it is worthwhile to keep an eye on your small kids and definitely don’t let them play near raccoon feces.

Diseases can have significant effects on bird populations, especially populations that have never been exposed to them. Avian pox is a disease that was presumably moved around by humans, and has been introduced to Galapagos – as well as Hawaii – where the disease has had a significant effect on birds.

Recent work by Patty Parker (from University of Missouri) and her team of researchers has learned where the pox came from, where and when it was introduced, and some details about how it spread across the archipelago. In CSI style, they visited collections (especially ours here at California Academy of Sciences), and examined literally thousands of birds that have been collected over the last century and that are now held in public research collections.

Every bird in the collection has a label that includes information on where and when the bird was collected, and by whom. By looking for external pox lesions, they could get a rough estimate of which birds had pox, where and when.

(This photo shows pox lesions preserved in 100-year old specimens collected on the Galapagos during the 1899 Snodgrass and Heller Expedition and the 1905-06 California Academy of Sciences Expedition).

But they didn’t stop there – on birds with large lesions or multiple lesions, they used tiny scalpel blades and cut minute pieces off the lesions. These tissue samples were then used to confirm that the disease was actually pox. Two techniques were employed – first, they did histopathology studies (basically looking at the lesions under a microscope to confirm their external appearance as pox-like), and second, they extracted DNA and amplified and sequenced poxvirus DNA. Together, these two tests not only confirmed pox as the culprit, they actually identified the pox strain as being nearly identical to known strains of Canary Pox.

With this information on the pox strain as well as the information on where and when the pox lesions first showed up, they could unravel how and when the virus first came to the Galapagos. No specimens from 1891 and 1897 contained any pox-like lesions. found that samples collected prior to 1900 never showed pox lesions.

Canarypox virus (CNVP) is a form of avipoxvirus that attacks wild and captive passerine birds, and can cause significant mortality. It is double-stranded DNA virus in the family Poxviridae. Externally, it causes lesions on feet, head, bill, and around the eyes, and can impede sight, feeding, and movement. It can also affect respiratory and digestive tracts inhibiting breathing and digestion. Because the virus contains a double-stranded DNA molecule as genetic material, it is hardy enough to persist in the environment longer than many other viruses.

Check out their full research article at PLoS One