WPBN: After the passing of her most recent calf in recent days, a heartbroken orca mother who made headlines more than six years ago for holding her deceased newborn calf for seventeen days after its death is, unfortunately, repeating history via the passing of her most recent calf.
An orca that is formally known as J35 and is commonly referred to as “Tahlequah” was spotted with a new calf on Friday in the waters of northern Washington, according to a report that was received by the Center for Whale Research (CWR). They were able to view J35 and the new calf on Monday, which they labeled as J61. Their team of researchers witnessed both of these events.
On the other hand, CWR reported that J61 had symptoms of distress in her early days, and whale researchers made the unfortunate discovery that she did not survive.
“The death of any calf in the (Southern Resident Killer Whale) population is a tremendous loss,” Center for Whale Research officials stated on Facebook. “But the death of J61 is particularly devastating, not just because she was a female, who could have one day potentially led her own matriline but also given the history of her mother J35 who has now lost two out of four documented calves – both of which were female.”
And now, whale watchers have discovered that Tahlequah has been seen carrying the body of her calf with her the second time around.
“This behavior was seen previously by J35 in 2018 when she carried the body of her deceased calf for 17 days,” CWR officials stated. “We hope to have more information on the situation through further observation and will provide more details at that time.”
Hope is restored with the birth of yet another calf
There was some more great news uncovered from the observations of whale researchers, despite the fact that they were mourning the loss of J61. They discovered that another new calf was in the pod and swimming with it.
A new calf may be traveling with the J19s and J16s, according to reports that were received by the Center for Whale Research on Monday evening. The researchers obtained confirmation of the additional calf, which they referred to as J62, the following morning when they were out on the water with J pod.
“The calf was amongst multiple females throughout their encounter, so more observations are needed to verify who the mother is,” the Center for Whale Research stated. “The calf’s sex is not yet known, but the team reports that the calf appeared physically and behaviorally normal.”
The mortality rate for calves born to Southern Resident killer whales is still rather high, according to Tamara Kelley of the Orca Conservancy. She stated that roughly fifty percent of the babies do not survive.
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