The world's oldest known killer whale or orca, Granny, is now missing and presumed to be dead. She would have been more than 100 years old.

Granny was part of a group of orcas living in Puget Sound in northwestern coastal Washington, specifically in a tiny pod where she was designated as "J2" when she was first spotted by scientists in 1976.

Like Us on Facebook

The orca study in Puget Sound began at that time. Granny was supposedly decades old during that study and is one of the oldest in her pod.

Scientists have estimated her age based on the other family members in her group. Based on the age of her offspring, a study conducted in 1987 estimated that she was born around 1911 or within a decade of that year.

Orcas can live up to 100 years old in the wild, however, most females die when they reach around 50 years. Unfortunately, captive orcas live only half as long.

Granny is a unique creature since she has outlived all her children and continued to swim throughout the Pacific ocean along with her grandchildren and great grandchildren.

In the last decades, Granny has been spotted with her pod thousands of times. Since orcas have a matriarchal family structure, Granny always led her pod and her children stay with their mother even if they find mates and reproduce. The oldest mother is always considered as the leader of the pod along with many mother orcas that form these groups together.

According to Center for Whale Research's Ken Balcomb, the last Granny spotting was in October. However, she has not been seen leading her pod ever since. The pod is currently carrying on as usual without their matriarch and scientists assume that she vanished or passed away signalling an end to Granny's amazingly long life.

There are currently 24 whales in Granny's J pod. However, researchers fear that decreasing salmon populations in Puget Sound could cause some survival problems for the rest of the killer whale family.