An orca, which carried its dead calf for 17 days and swam more than 1600 km in the ocean in 2018, has given birth to a new baby, according to the Center for Whale Research.
A Facebook post said the calf was born to Tahlequah, known to researchers as J35. It was first spotted swimming with a J pod in the Puget Sound area on December 20, CNN reported.
“The Center for Whale Research has received additional information about the new calf born in J Pod. On Monday, 12/23, a team of researchers, including scientists from NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, were able to make long-term observations of the new calf. These observations allow us to more confidently designate the new calf’s mother as J35 and give it the alpha-numeric designation J61,” read the post by the Center for Whale Research.
The team photographed the lower part of the calf, which confirmed it was a female. “The team, including several experienced killer whale researchers, have expressed concerns about the calf’s health based on the behavior of both J35 and J61. Early life is always dangerous for new calves, with mortality rates being very high in the first year. J35 is an experienced mother, and we hope she is able to keep J61 alive through these difficult early days,” it added.
Michael Weiss, research director at the Center for Whale Research, told CNN that researchers were not initially able to confirm the identity of the calf, but after seeing it “with confidence”, they identified Tahlequah mother and baby as alpha-numeric. Assigned. J61.
A nature lover and photographer, who captured the calf, said he was shocked after seeing the calf. “I was just looking through my photos to see who those whales were that passed close to the port of the ferry I was on and I saw a very small page on a photo.”
After scrolling through the series, the photographer realized “it was a very young calf, much smaller than any known young of the group.”
Tahlequah, or J35, made headlines six years ago when she swam nearly 1,000 miles across the ocean with the body of her calf. The calf died just hours after birth. She swam with the body for more than two weeks to save it from drowning.
Two years later, she gave birth to her first known child, J57, following the incident in 2020. She is also the mother of another orca named J47.
