Thread: Update 1/4/25: Orca Tahlequah’s New Baby Calf Dies

Orca Tahlequah’s new baby dies

https://www.gazettextra.com/news/nat...c6a535712.html

Summary:
SEATTLE — In a day of sadness and surprise, researchers on Puget Sound on Tuesday found J61, the new calf born to mother orca Tahlequah, had not survived — and that a new calf also had been born to J pod.

Brad Hanson, biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Northwest Region in Seattle, was on the water with other researchers for a health survey of the endangered southern resident orcas and confirmed the news.

Tahlequah’s new calf was especially important as it was a female. The birth also was of symbolic importance to the region. Tahlequah is the mother orca who carried her calf that lived only a half-hour in 2018 in a journey of more than 1,000 miles and 17 days, stirring grief around the world.

This evening the Seattle Times reports that again, the mom orca Tahlequah, is carrying her new dead baby calf.

Note: Cannot find another source yet. The Seattle Times is behind a paywall and therefore cannot post their articles.

Here is a video of Tahlequah's previous baby who died (which she carried for 17 days):

A heartbreakingly familiar scene has returned to Washington waters:

Mother orca Tahlequah is again carrying a dead calf, as she did in a 17-day, 1,000-mile journey that grieved the region and world in 2018.

Researchers are worried about the toll on her health as she clings to a baby orca that likely weighs hundreds of pounds, continually snatching it back from the waves before it is swept away.

https://www.kuow.org/stories/orca-mo...nd-puget-sound

Southern Resident orca whale again carries her dead calf through Puget Sound-area waters



Credits:
Channel: KOMO News
Published: 1/3/25
1:34 minutes

Orca’s second 'tour of grief' emphasizes pivotal role of females in critically endangered species

https://www.knkx.org/environment/2025-01-03/southern-resident-orca-j35-tahlequah-grief-baby-dies-j-pod-dead-calf-endangered-whales

Summary:
Scientists are keeping an eye on a southern resident orca who once again lost a female calf just a few days after its birth.

The orca J35, also known as Tahlequah, is again carrying the body of her deceased offspring for miles through the Salish Sea. Researchers are acknowledging this as a sign of grief. And they're worried about the future of this particular mother orca, as well as her entire critically endangered species.