This is the result of YEARS of dedicated efforts by the Aotearoa NZ conservation team. We can't count their chicks before they hatch, or even before they fledge...but it's a wonderful thing to see.

sheesh chatgpt 🤦🏻‍♀️

thank goodness!

Whetu, I like your style!

I found a really good nook the other day

"'I think these cases may really be pro-social representations of conscious learning where these whales are going out of their way to actually try and understand … who we are and how we might interact with them in their environment,' [Jared] Towers [of Bay Cetology] says."

From Brenna Owens' article in The Canadian Press:

"Sharing food among relatives and other orcas is foundational for the whales, and in attempting to provision humans with prey...it could be an example of the whales practicing a cultural behaviour or exploring humans’ capacity to respond."

I remember it, almost -

the matrix of stars
holding stories, and me,
in their celestial arms