Published on January 6, 2025 at 11:54. / Modified on January 6, 2025 at 5:30 p.m.
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In marine wildlife tracking data, the orca is named J35, but in the Seattle area, almost everyone knows its name, Tahlequah. Like the southern tip of Vashon Island, in the northwest of the United States, off which the animal lives. The adventures of this cetacean like no other are scrutinized as much by biologists as by the local media and the population. In 2018, he stunned the world by refusing to let his deceased newborn sink into the dark waters of Puget Sound – the inlet of the Pacific Ocean that runs down from the Canadian border along Washington state.
For seventeen days and over 1,600 kilometers, Tahlequah had taken no time to rest or hunt sufficiently, preferring to concentrate on the small corpse that she tirelessly brought to the surface. Faced with this unprecedented behavior in the orca, an animal with astonishing cognitive capacities, the scientific community spoke of an act of mourning. Since then, the killer whale has had its own Wikipedia page and continues to arouse unusual enthusiasm. In 2020, the birth of his son, Phoenix, the second still alive, brought smiles back to his supporters. Then, on December 24, Seattle felt like a Christmas story when researchers announced that the animal had just given birth to a new baby.
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