Tahlequah, Orca Who Carried Dead Calf’s Body For 1,000 Miles, Has New Baby
Tahlequah, an orca who carried around the body of her dead calf for more than two weeks in what experts called a show of grief, has given birth again.
One of the Southern Resident orcas of the Pacific Northwest, Tahlequah made headlines around the world in 2018 when she swam with her deceased offspring’s body on her head for 17 days in what many saw as a heartbreaking spectacle. The infant female had died within a half hour of birth, and her mother swam with the body for an estimated 1,000 miles.
Around two years later, the killer whale mother gave birth to a healthy and playful male calf.
However, researchers are worried about the health of her latest offspring. On Christmas Eve, the Center for Whale Research confirmed on social media that a new female calf spotted with Tahlequah’s pod in the Puget Sound area was hers.
The Washington state nonprofit said that a research team that included “multiple experienced killer whale researchers” has “expressed concern about the calf’s health” based on the behavior of both the calf and her mother. However, the center expressed hope for the young animal, noting that Tahlequah is an “experienced mother.”
Tahlequah is known to researchers as J35, indicating her status as a member of a pod of orcas designated J Pod. Her new calf has been dubbed J61. The mother became widely known as “Tahlequah” after she was given the name by the Whale Museum in Washington state through its “adopt an orca” program.
Prior to her calf dying in 2018, Tahlequah gave birth in 2010 to a surviving male calf, J47. According to the nonprofit Orca Conservancy, the calf she had in 2020, called J57, is often seen playing with his older brother.
