Our Orca Matriarchs Are Dying

These toothed whale residents are a little community—small matriarchies, with culture, diet, dialect, and rituals all of their own.by Sarah Myhre Fokusiert/gettyimages.comMany global populations of animals are rapidly sliding toward functional extinction, which is, in short, an ecologically relevant status of highly diminished species that no longer functionally modify their ecosystem. There are parallels between the functional extinction of species and the experience of navigating the Sea