<
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/02/endangered-orcas-southern-resident-killer-whales-sniffer-dogs-drones-scientists-washington>
"Nestled between the US state of Washington and Vancouver Island, the San Juan
Islands are a vibrant haven for North American wildlife. Here, all of the
world’s remaining 74 southern resident sub-species of orcas find sanctuary,
surfacing daily from the depths of the Salish Sea.
Out at sea watching the whales is Dr Deborah Giles, an orca scientist, with her
colleague, Eba. Eba is a brown and white rescue dog with a remarkable nose.
Found as a cold, wet, five-month-old puppy on the streets of Sacramento, she
has been detecting whale scat – or faeces – since the age of four.
Dressed in a bright orange lifejacket – and sometimes goggles – Eba perches
atop Giles’s research boat, scanning the wind. When she catches a whiff of orca
faeces, she raises her nose, sometimes whimpering or wagging her tail to point
Giles in the right direction. Orca-detecting dogs have become an unlikely ally
in the fight to save the whales.
“We wanted to use Eba because it allows us to stay really far away from the
whales and not stress them out,” says Giles, a member of the marine
conservation organisation SeaDoc Society.
Through the study of whale faeces, researchers can uncover a wealth of
biological insights from a single sample, including diet, hormone levels,
exposure to toxins, pregnancy, gut microbiome composition and the amount of
microplastics in their system, as well as the presence of parasites, bacteria
and fungi.
Eba wears a collar adorned with a small strip of lime green and black neoprene
to work. It was once part of a toy belonging to Tokitae, or Toki, a southern
resident orca taken in a mass capture in 1970. She spent 53 years in captivity
at the Miami Seaquarium before dying in 2023, just months before a planned
return to her native waters.
Also known as Lolita, and named Sk’aliCh’elh-tenaut by the Lummi Nation tribe,
her story became a rallying cry for orca conservation. When she died, her
longtime trainer gifted the strip of wetsuit to Giles – a quiet tribute to a
whale who should have come home."
Via Esther Schindler.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
