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Each
orca family has its own set of, on average,12 discrete calls. These
calls are passed from the orca mother to her offspring. Some calls
are shared by other groups, which suggests that these groups are related
to each other through the adult females. The degree of similarity
of these shared calls indicates just how closely the groups are related.
Groups with shared calls form a clan. The southern resident community
has just one clan, "J Clan", whereas the northern resident community
has three clans; "A", "G" and "R". With experience, it is possible
to distinguish each family's "dialect" from those of other families.
Each call has been assigned a code by researchers to facilitate classification.
The following are examples of calls from the 3 clans of the northern
resident community:
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