Orca, known as J35 set an example of mother's love once again as she grieves the loss of another newborn.
Almost six years ago, the killer whale was spotted carrying her dead calf for nearly three weeks in the ocean, in what experts believed was her way to express grief.
As per NBC, J35, also known as Tahlequah was spotted with her female newborn, J61, on December 20, 2024.
This news came as a fantastic update for the subspecies female population, especially the reproductive-age females, as its very critical for the survival of the killer whales.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) photographed J35 on New Year’s day around West Seattle where mother orca was carrying the baby whale’s body on her head.
On Thursday during a news conference, Brad Hanson, a research scientist with the NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center shared, “We were able to confirm J35 had lost the calf and she was pushing it around on her head.”
He also revealed that the mother whale is trying her best not to let the dead calf sink, to the point that every time the baby whale appears to go down “she’ll do a high arch dive to go down and recover the calf.”
The science director of the SeaDoc Society, Joe Gaydos revealed that whale have similar pattern of behaviour to humans hence it would be huge possibility that Tahlequah is expressing her grief in the best way she knows how.
Gaydos also said that humans don’t have monopoly on emotions, as we share similar neurotransmitters and hormones to other mammals, it would be fair to assume they go through heartache humans go through.
The marine experts are also worried for J35 as pushing and dragging the calf requires a lot of energy.
J35 is part of a critically endangered sub population of whales known as southern resident killer whales, with the whole population consisting of just 73 mammals.
As of now, Tahlequah is a mom to two male calves, one of them was born in 2020.
