Acknowledgements
We would like to thank our colleagues at Fisheries and Oceans Canada,
the Center for Whale Research, Bay Cetology and other supporting
organizations that helped with the collection, analysis and management
of photo-identification data of Bigg’s and resident killer whales over
the last five decades. In particular, we thank Elysanne Durand, Graeme
Ellis, Erin Heydenrich, Mark Malleson, James Pilkington, Tasli Shaw,
Gary Sutton and Astrid van Ginneken. We further thank colleagues at the
Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour at the University of Exeter for
their valuable inputs on the project. Long term killer whale
photo-identification research efforts resulting in data used for this
analysis were supported with funding from Eartwatch Institute and NOAA
Fisheries (Southern residents), and the Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Species At Risk Program (Northern residents and Bigg’s). Support for
this research was provided by a Natural Environment Research Council
grant (NE/S010327/1), a National Environment Research Council DTP GW4+
training support grant (NE/L002434/1).