Stricken orca mother who carried her dead calf for 17 days is hit by another heartbreaking loss

A grief-stricken mother Orca, who is known to have carried her dead calf for almost 1,000 miles in 17 days in 2018, has suffered another devastating loss, scientists confirmed.

The orca, named Tahlequah or J35 by researchers, was spotted on December 26 swimming with a new calf in the Puget Sound waterway near Washington state.

However, investigators have since confirmed that the newborn calf, J61, has died.

“New Year’s Eve 2024 was a day of extreme highs and lows,” the Center for Whale Research said in a statement. Facebook post.

‘We have received confirmation of yet another new calf in the J-pod, but unfortunately this was accompanied by the devastating news that J61 did not survive.’

Now the – again – grieving mother has been spotted tirelessly carrying her lifeless calf, just like in 2018.

‘The Center for Whale Research has received additional information that as of 1-1-25 J35 is carrying the body of the deceased calf [J61] with her. This behavior was previously seen by J35 in 2018 when she carried the body of her deceased calf for seventeen days,” Tuesday’s post continued.

In a video recorded by scientists on Wednesday, Tahlequah is seen diving deep underwater again and again, with her deceased calf’s tiny fin barely penetrating the surface.

Researchers note that the deadly killer whale J61 gave birth unusually soon after her last birth and may not have had time to physically recover.

“It’s concerning that she put a lot of effort into caring for this calf that she lost,” Brad Hanson, a biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, told me. Seattle Times.

“And this is a time of year when fish availability is typically less than other times of the year. So we are concerned.’

Tahlequah endures the enormous grief while he is already thin – due to the low food supply – and caring for two sons.

“It’s fair to say she is grieving or grieving,” said Joe Gaydos, scientific director of the SeaDoc Society.

“And I think in recent years we’ve realized that we have the same neurotransmitters as they do. We have the same hormones as them. Why shouldn’t we have the same emotions as them?’

Gaydos added that orcas, like humans, are social animals and often participate in the grieving process as a group.

‘Orcas are social animals just like chimpanzees, just like us. Why wouldn’t the entire group participate in the grieving process? “We have not cornered the market to help others grieve,” he said.

However, the unimaginable loss of Talequah, while devastating, hardly comes as a surprise to researchers who say the survival rate of newborn calves is “always marginal.”

“Newborn calf survival is always marginal, maybe around 50 percent,” says Michael Weiss, research director at the Center of Whale Research.

‘The death of any calf in the SRKW population is a tremendous loss, but the death of J61 is particularly devastating, not only because she was a female, who could potentially one day have led her own matriline, but also considering her mother’s history. J35 which has now lost two of its four documented calves – both were female,” the CWR said.

“The entire team at the Center for Whale Research is deeply saddened by this news and we will continue to provide updates when we can.”

Orcas are known to be sentient beings, experiencing grief and loss just like humans.

In 2016, scientists found evidence that whales and dolphins keep vigil for their dead.

They analyzed several cases in which mammals clung to the bodies of dead compatriots and watched over a dead companion. At the time, they said the most likely explanation was grief.

Earlier this year, a two-year-old killer whale was spotted circling a Canadian lagoon for days and refusing to leave the area where its mother died on the shore.

The mother of the young whale, named Spong, died after becoming stuck in the shallow waters off the west coast of Vancouver.

Conservationists and scientists then tried to extract the young orca from the lagoon and return it to the sea before it succumbed to starvation.

But these mammals usually stay with their mothers for their entire lives, so it is unknown whether the two-year-old will ever leave his mother’s resting place.

“Whales are bonded with their families for a lifetime,” Janie Wray, CEO and principal investigator of BC Whales, told The Guardian.

“And I keep thinking about what that calf is going through, because the calf doesn’t understand why its mother is no longer there for her.

“If that happened to one of us, you can imagine what we would go through. I truly believe that calf is going through something very similar right now.”