Whale that carried dead baby for 17 days seen with new calf off North American coast

Killer whale that carried dead baby for 17 days in 2018 has new calf

In a story that tugged at the heartstrings of many in 2018, a killer whale carried its dead baby for 17 days along the coast of North America, refusing to leave it behind.

Happily, that same whale was spotted with a new calf six years later, just in time for Christmas.

The young calf was spotted with the pod of whales on 20 Dec, reported the Center for Whale Research in a Facebook post on 22 Dec.

Source: Center for Whale Research on Facebook

New calf confirmed to be birthed by whale who lost baby

At first, researchers couldn’t confirm whether the new calf was birthed by J35, the orca who grieved the loss of her baby years ago.

It often takes multiple encounters for the team to assess these whales, assign a designation for the new whale, and confidently determine who the mother of a calf is, the centre said.

However, in a subsequent post, the centre said researchers were able to conduct longer-term observations of the new calf, adding:

These observations allow us to more confidently assign the new calf’s mother as J35 and give it the alpha-numeric designation J61.

Source: Center for Whale Research on Facebook

New calf believed to be born premature

Despite the happy news, researchers are still concerned about the health of J61.

The Orca Conservancy said in a post on X that they believe the calf was born premature.

Mama J35 also appeared to be in subnormal body condition to lactate in October.

J61 was observed to be pushed around on her mother’s head and not too lively — another point of concern for researchers.

Source: Center for Whale Research on Facebook

However, the post also added that whale calf behaviour is not fully understood.

Grieving for 17 days

J35, one of the few remaining Southern Resident killer whales, living on the western coast of North America, gave birth to a 400-pound female calf in July 2018, according to the New York Post.

However, the baby died less than an hour later and J35 was seen pushing her carcass up with her nose.

She did this for days despite swimming long distances in strong water currents.

Although whales typically display grieving behaviour by carrying their dead newborns around, a researcher said this the longest time they’d seen a whale grieve the loss of a calf.

To add to the tragedy, it was the first calf born to the pod of whales in more than three years.

Also read: Over 30 beached whales rescued in New Zealand after hundreds of locals show up to help

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Featured image adapted from Center for Whale Research on Facebook.