Re-articulating a Killer Whale

The process of working from a whole animal found on Kruzof Island to a skeleton hanging in the Sitka Sound Science Center is much longer than anyone expected.  The project began with Shannon Atkinson and a group of veterinarians, biologists and volunteers working on a young killer whale on a beach near Sitka.  After months of work, the skeleton is cleaned, reassembled and hung in the Science Center’s aquarium.  It is a huge accomplishment that almost a year to the day after the project began, we could stand back and admire our completed skeleton.

The first step in the process was getting people to the beach.  The Forestry Service generously offered time and help to ferry people out.  Once there, the whale was measured, and cut into manageable chunks that could be hauled to the boats and brought back to Sitka. The next process was cleaning the bones.  They were boiled to get the muscle and soft tissue off, then the Making Waves summer camp stepped in.  Middle school students from Sitka donned gloves and picked up scrub brushes to clean the slimy, messy bones.  The students were a huge help, particularly in small spaces like the brain case where adult hands had trouble fitting.  

Once the bones were mostly clean, the degreasing began.  All bones have some grease in them, from marrow and the very things that keep bones alive and healthy in the body.  Whales have much more grease in their bones than the average animal and degreasing took months, longer than anyone expected.  The grease needs to come out so that the bones do not smell or discolor over time.  Chemicals like ammonia, detergents and peroxide were used to degrease and then whiten the bones.  While cleaning the bones, each one was measured, weighed, photographed and even scanned into a digital format by the Idaho State Virtualization Laboratory.  All of that information is being put into a database to learn more about this orca, and even orcas in general.  We know this animal was a juvenile, but what differences might there be between young bones and adult bones?  Do the shapes change?  Do certain bones grow very little as the animal ages?  We are trying to find out.

The final process was perhaps the most fun, taking all the bones, and puzzling them back together into their original places.  It took five days to get the whale reassembled with some bones strung on bars or bolted together.  Now the whale is up and hanging, and waiting for the grand unveiling on April 22^nd!

We would like to thank the Sitka Sound Science Center's AmeriCorp Alaina Avery for this wonderful recap of the last year and for sharing her photos. We are all so excited to see the final product when the center reopens on Earth day!