An endangered orca off the US Pacific North-west coast that made global headlines in 2018 for carrying her dead calf for more than two weeks is doing so once again following the death of her new calf, in another sign of grief over lost offspring, researchers said.
The mother orca, known as Tahlequah or J35, has been seen carrying the body of the deceased female calf since Wednesday, the Washington state-based Centre for Whale Research said in a Facebook post.
The orca known as J35 (Tahlequah) carries the carcass of her dead calf in the waters of Puget Sound off West Seattle, Washington. Credit: AP
“The entire team at the Centre for Whale Research is deeply saddened by this news and we will continue to provide updates when we can,” the post said.
In 2018, researchers observed J35 pushing her dead calf along for 17 days, propping it up for more than 1600 kilometres. The calf had died shortly after it was born, and the mother and her close-knit pod of whales were seen taking turns carrying the dead body.
The research centre about two weeks ago said it had been made aware of the new calf. But on Christmas Eve, it said it was concerned about the calf’s health based on its behaviour and that of its mother.
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By New Year’s Day, officials with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were able to confirm that J35 was carrying her calf’s dead body, said Brad Hanson, a research scientist with the federal agency.
Hanson, who was able to observe her behaviour from a boat on Wednesday, said J35 was draping the dead calf across her snout or on top of her head, and that she appeared to dive for it when it sank from the surface. He said the calf had been alive for just a “handful of days”.
“I think it’s fair to say that she is grieving or mourning,” said Joe Gaydos, science director of SeaDoc at the University of California, Davis, of J35. Similar behaviour could also be seen in other socially cohesive animals with relatively long life spans, such as primates and dolphins, he said.
