Killer whale who carried her dead calf for 17 days across 1,000 miles of ocean loses another baby

A killer whale mom, who shot to fame after she carried her dead calf’s corpse with her for more than two weeks in a harrowing tale of grief, has lost another baby, scientists revealed.The orca, identified as J35, lost her first calf in 2018 but was seen with a new female calf, known as J61, just before Christmas.This was the second calf J35 had given birth to since her first loss.A team of scientists watching the pod raised alarm bells just days after the discovery, however, saying they were “concerned” about the calf’s health based on the “behavior of both J35 and J61.”“Early life is always dangerous for new calves, with a very high mortality rate in the first year,” the Center for Whale Research posted to Facebook just four days after the discovery.In a cruel twist of fate, the team watching the pod confirmed on Tuesday that the new calf had died.“[The] general feeling was one of profound sadness, not only for J35 knowing her history, but also knowing what the loss of a female means to the potential for southern resident killer whale recovery,” Brad Hanson, who works as a biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Northwest Region in Seattle, told the Seattle Times.But not all hope is lost.

The team also discovered another calf had been born into the pod of critically endangered whales.Its mother and gender have not been confirmed.The pod, who roam the vast Pacific Ocean between Washington state and British Columbia, face numerous threats including vessel noise and disturbances that make it harder to hunt, pollution to food and a lack of food sources.As of December 2023, the J-pod of whales had 75 members, according to research that dates back to the 1970s....