Orca who carried dead newborn for weeks has lost another calf and is traveling with it
- Scientists believe Tahlequah is expressing grief by continuing to push the calf's body, a behavior that expends valuable energy.
- While other orcas have been observed carrying their dead, Tahlequah's extended period of mourning is unique.
- The loss is particularly devastating as female calves have the potential to lead their own families in the future.
An orca who drew international attention when she carried her dead calf for 17 days and more than 1,000 miles seven years ago is experiencing heartbreak all over again.
Scientists initially spotted the whale mom, known both as Tahlequah and J35, with a new female calf on Friday, Dec. 20 but were worried about the health of the baby when they got out on the water three days later.
By Wednesday, they were certain she was pushing around the baby whale's carcass just north of Alki Point, a neighborhood in western Seattle and a peninsula that feeds into Puget Sound.
"We were able to confirm that J31 had in fact lost the calf and she was pushing it around on her head, much like what was happening in 2018," Brad Hanson, a research scientist with the NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center, said at a Thursday press conference.
Tahlequah is one of 73 endangered Southern Resident orcas, a killer whale population that lives in three pods − J, K an L − along the Salish Sea near British Columbia and Washington State. Contaminants, noise, prey availability and inbreeding are among the threats Southern Residents face.
As a result of this most recent death, Tahlequah has lost two out of four documented calves – both of which were female, according to the Center for Whale Research. Tahlequah last gave birth to a male calf in 2020.
"New Year’s Eve 2024 was a day of extreme highs and lows. We have confirmation of another new calf in J pod, but sadly, this was combined with the devastating news that J61 has not survived," the center wrote in a Wednesday social media post.
Hanson said they are "very encouraged" by the sight of another calf in the J pod because "it appears to be very robust" despite the Tahlequah's unexpected loss.
Death of Tahlequah's calf is 'devastating,' scientists say
Other Southern Residents have been observed carrying newly deceased calves, but none of them have clung to their young quite as long as Tahlequah.
"It's usually been kind of one-off observations within a particular encounter as opposed to multiple weeks," Michael Weiss, executive director at the Center for Whale Research, said at the news conference. "The general behavior, yes, other whales have done but not that length of behavior."
Tahlequah carrying the deceased calf around is likely an expression of heartbreak, Joe Gaydos, the science director of the SeaDoc Society, a marine research organization at University of California-Davis, said at the news conference.
"Over the last few years, we have realized that we have the same neurotransmitters that they have. We have the same hormones that they have, why shouldn't we also have the same emotions that they have," Gaydos said. "I think it's fair to say that she is grieving or mourning."
Tahlequah is using a significant amount of energy to push the baby whale's carcass, a behavior Hanson says could potentially do more harm than good in the short-term, especially since she has not had time to forage food and is physically weaker from her last successful birth.
"It is a concern that she's expending a lot of energy to try to take care of this calf that she's lost," Hanson said.
According to the center, the death of any Southern Resident killer whale calf is a "tremendous loss," but the death of Tahlequah's calf is "particularly devastating, not just because she was a female, who could have one day potentially led her own matriline but also given the history of her mother."
Contributing: Wyatte Grantham-Philips and Jay Cannon, Paste BN; Associated Press