Category Archives: Uncategorized
For #EvolutionEvents Episode 6, we turn to birds and dinosaurs! Birds, seabirds and otherwise, are critical to healthy ecosystems in the Salish Sea. A famous species in the Salish Sea is pictured here (right image), the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). Many of you may already know that today’s birds are “modern dinosaurs”, sharing high relation […]
Today is International Day of Women and Girls in Science! At Five Star we are proud of the many women we had the privilege to work with over the years. These amazing women contribute to science and research plus provide inspiration to the next generation of female scientists. Today we want to thank all our […]
Welcome to episode 5 of Evolution Events! Who can guess what our subject is today? Today we look at the interesting species that is the gray whale, and their classification in the modern animal kingdom. A gray whale (left image) is a baleen whale, just like the humpback whale (right image) and other species such […]
The two otter species seen here (through an individual sea otter and a family of river otters), share common ancestors. Today, they belong to different groups in the family Mustelidae. Want to know more? Read this Episode 4 of Evolution Events! Mustelidae encompasses familiar creatures such as badgers, martens, mink, weasels and otters (of 67 […]
Welcome to another “Evolution Events” episode. Today’s topic includes the evolutionary and modern differences between two similar-appearing cetacean groups, dolphins and porpoises. Have you ever wondered what the differences between these animals are? We are referring here to porpoises as belonging to the “Phocoenidae” family, where dolphins belong to a few families including the familiar, […]
Welcome to another episode of “Evolution Events”! We are excited to talk about evolution in Order Cetacea; specifically toothed whales vs. baleen whales! First, we will reiterate what it means to be a toothed whale or a baleen whale. “Toothed whales” do not always refer to animals commonly called whales; scientifically speaking, toothed whales also […]
2021 was a record-breaker for Salish Sea whales! Bigg’s orcas: 329 days*, 11 calves bornHumpback whales: 301 days, 21 calves seenGray whales: 149 daysMinke whales: 148 daysSouthern Resident orcas: 103 days* *Orca data from Orca Behavior Inst. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/record-whale-sightings-2021-1.6311282?fbclid=IwAR2urvZsxdTbaiwi7bwn7BtT2QEzu4ObUpP-X5KbZP6yZfeiTWgkhsEDaHI
Welcome to our brand new series “Evolution Events”! We are so excited to delve into some fascinating topics including fossils, DNA, evolution and animal behaviour. For our first episode, we are so excited to discuss a fascinating event that is killer whale, or orca, ecotype evolution. Much of this information has been summarized from the […]
Happy New Year! Happy New Year from everyone at Five Star Whale Watching We hope 2022 will bring joy, good health, peace, prosperity and laughter to everyone #happynewyear