Southern resident orca mother seen pushing deceased calf – BC
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Researchers in Washington State have confirmed a sad outcome for a southern resident orca mother.
The Center for Whale Research says they were able to confirm that southern resident J36, a member of J Pod, was seen pushing a deceased calf in Rosario Strait on Sept. 12.
Staff said that the umbilical cord was still attached.
Based on the size of the calf, they say it could have been born either full term or near full term, but it was unclear if it was a stillbirth, or if the calf died shortly after birth.
They estimated the calf was born in the previous three days before the sighting.
This is not the first time that an orca mother from this pod has been seen carrying a deceased calf.
J35, known by the nickname Talequah, is a member of the southern resident killer whale J pod and made international headlines in 2018 when she carried her dead calf with her for more than two weeks.
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In January, she was seen carrying another deceased calf.
The whales face several threats, including ship strikes, noise pollution, food sources, and inbreeding.
“These whales are facing a lot of different threats from contaminants, from inbreeding… when we run a population viability analysis of the population, where we project forward in time under various scenarios, there’s a whole bunch of scenarios that don’t result in recovery of the population, and there’s very few that do result in recovery,” Dr. Michael Weiss, research director at the Center for Whale Research said in January.
He added that the key component of the whales’ survival is they have to boost their food availability.
Southern resident killer whales remain critically endangered, and scientists believe a lack of Chinook salmon is their biggest threat.
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