The Summary
- An orca that carried her dead calf with her for days in 2018 appears to be repeating the behavior with a newly deceased baby whale.
- Scientists think the killer whale is likely to be expressing grief.
- The orca is part of a critically endangered subpopulation known as southern resident killer whales.
When an orca mother held her deceased calf for 17 days in a row almost six years ago, it garnered international attention. Unfortunately, the whale now appears to be repeating what scientists believe to be a grieving display with another dead baby.
On December 20, the mother whale, also referred to as J35 or Tahlequah, was sighted carrying a newborn calf. However, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s researchers captured a picture of her off West Seattle on Wednesday, holding the newborn whale’s carcass on her head.
At a press conference on Thursday, Brad Hanson, a research scientist with the NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center, stated, “We were able to confirm J31 had lost the calf and she was pushing it around on her head.”
“It looks like she’ll do a high arch dive to go down and recover the calf when it seems to sink,” he continued. “We’re not really sure whether she’s pushing it at that point or grabbing it.”
According to scientists, Tahlequah is most likely grieving by carrying the dead calf. Whales share hardwiring with humans and other large, sociable mammals with extended lifespans, according to Joe Gaydos, science director of the SeaDoc Society, a marine research organization, who spoke at the news conference.
Their neurotransmitters are the same as ours. Their hormones are the same as ours. Why shouldn’t we experience their feelings as well? The market isn’t dominated by feelings. Gaydos said that dolphins and nonhuman primates have shown comparable behavior, so I believe it’s reasonable to infer that she is grieving or mourning.
J35 belongs to the southern resident killer whale subpopulation, which is a critically endangered species of whale. The gang now only has 73 members after Tahlequah’s calf died and another orca was just born.
Tahlequah has had two male calves survive over the years, one of whom was born in 2020.
The Center for Whale Research assigns tracking numbers to the southern residents, who are then intensively monitored by scientists, photographers, and whale watchers, especially when they are close to Puget Sound towns like Seattle.
For weeks, scientists have been tracking the story of the dead calf. According to Hanson, NOAA researchers saw the female calf, known as J61, on December 23 after citizen scientists initially saw her. According to him, they were worried about the calf’s health at the time because it seemed to be having trouble and surfacing strangely.
Calves of killer whales frequently pass away soon after birth. The largest obstacle to survival, according to Center for Whale study study director Michael Weiss, is the first year of life.
Of calves that researchers are able to identify and record, between 70 and 80 percent make it through their first several years.
According to Weiss, “so many calves are probably being born and dying before they are ever photographed and documented, so we don’t know exactly what the survival rate is.” The likelihood of calves surviving their first year is probably closer to 50%.
NOAA researchers said they are now concerned about Tahlequah s own health, because pushing the calf creates a lot of drag in the water and requires a lot of energy.
According to Hanson, foraging is one of the activities she most likely doesn’t have time for. She is putting a lot of effort into trying to care for this calf that she lost, which is concerning.
For southern resident whales, this is the usual calving season. Hanson said the researchers were encouraged by the birth of the other orca, called J62, which was first spotted by observers on Dec. 30 and confirmed by the Center for Whale Research on New Year s Day.
It would appear to be very robust, Hanson said.
Southern resident killer whales have been a target of conservation efforts for decades. They are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and were listed as critically endangered in 2005.
The whales typically spend several months each year along Washington s coastline in Puget Sound. They live in three pods called J, K and L and have evolved to eat mostly fish, including prized Chinook salmon.
Beginning in the 1960s, many southern resident killer whales were killed or captured, with some survivors put on display at marine parks. By 1974, surveys found just 71 left in the wild. The population fluctuated after that it reached a high of 95 in 1995 but has since been declining.
The whales are struggling primarily because the quality and quantity of their prey have diminished and because of pollution from industrial chemicals like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which contaminate their prey and accumulate in their bodies. In addition, noisy vessels can disrupt the whales and hamper communication.
Research suggests the southern residents are on a path toward extinction unless more aggressive action is taken. Already, Washington state and federal agencies have invested more than $1 billion in programs to reduce the threats to the whales. But the bottom line remains: The southern residents simply don t have enough food.
Key streams that once produced ample salmon including the lower Snake River are dammed, which restricts access to and survival of the fish.
We are not doing enough on Chinook recovery and salmon recovery, Gaydos said.
For the struggling southern residents, the loss of a female calf is a devastating blow not only to her mother but also to the trajectory of the entire subspecies.
The real limitation is the number of reproductive-age females and how capable they are of actually successfully rearing the calf. So we definitely want to see more females in the population, Weiss said.
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