Orca Tahlequah once again mourns the death of one of her babies. Seven years after losing a first, the mother killer whale was observed carrying another dead newborn.
Posted at 1:27 p.m.
Updated at 2:18 p.m.
“This is devastating news,” lamented the team from the Whale Research Center, located in Washington state, in a message published Thursday on Instagram.
Tahlequah is an orca also known as J35. This is the same Pacific orca that was observed in 2018 pushing and carrying the body of its dead newborn off the south coast of British Columbia. She had transported it like this for more than two weeks, over more than 1,600 kilometers, to prevent it from sinking, which caused a stir in the media around the world.
PHOTO CANDICE EMMONS, ARCHIVES ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tahlequah transported the body of her dead newborn for more than two weeks, more than 1,000 miles.
This behavior had already been observed in other orcas, but never over such a long period, recalls Anaïs Remili, researcher at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, during an interview with The Press.
She was grieving, she refused to let him go. Without going into anthropomorphism, it sure speaks to us as humans.
Anaïs Remili, researcher at Simon Fraser University
A tragic story that seems to repeat itself, since Tahlequah was seen on 1is January, off the coast of Seattle, pushing a second dead newborn.
At risk from birth
The female orca has now lost two of her four calves (the proper term for an orca’s baby) which have been documented by scientists, the Research Center says.
“The beginning of life is always dangerous for calves, with a very high mortality rate during the first year,” the team explains in another post on the subject.
The calf, called J61, was female. The reasons for his death are still unknown. According to Anaïs Remili, it could be explained in several ways: perhaps he was premature, or that he did not have enough to eat.
But above all, this population of orcas includes so few individuals that there is a very high rate of inbreeding, and therefore a high risk of losing the calf in the first days of life.
A few days earlier, the Whale Research Center had rejoiced at its birth; the calf was seen swimming alongside its mother around December 20.
However, three days later, researchers were able to approach him to observe him and became concerned about his deteriorating health.
PHOTO MAYA SEARS, FROM THE CENTER FOR WHALE RESEARCH INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT
Calf J61 was seen swimming alongside its mother around December 20.
The calf had been observed spending long periods underwater nursing or attempting to nurse, and being pushed by its mother. He didn’t seem very lively, says the Orca Conservancy.
“It breaks my heart,” confides Anaïs Remili. “Every time there is a birth, we say to ourselves: “That’s it, there’s a new one!” We only want one thing, and that is for this population to recover. »
A population in danger
Tahlequah is a Southern Resident orca, an endangered population of killer whales.
This population is divided into three families (J, K and L), each with its own dialect. Last July, the Center recorded 73 southern resident killer whales, two fewer than the previous year. The J family, of which Tahlequah is a part, then numbered 25.
Nearly 30 years ago, there were 97 Southern Resident orcas, according to NOAA Fisheries data.
“This population of orcas is threatened by several factors: lack of food, noise in the oceans due to human activity and the presence of contaminants in the water,” lists Anaïs Remili.
Another calf, J62, however, gives scientists some hope. This one was also born very recently within the group of orcas of which Tahlequah is a part. The sex and mother of this newborn have not yet been determined, but the little one seemed to behave “normally”, according to the researchers’ first observations.
