Researchers Believe Mother Orca Known for Grieving 2018 Newborn’s Death Has Lost Another Calf

Tahlequah, the killer whale who carried her dead calf and swam with him for 17 days in 2018, has likely suffered another loss.

Per The Seattle Times, researchers believe the mother orca’s newborn calf, who the Center for Whale Research discovered the calf on Friday, Dec. 20, and given the alpha-numeric designation J61, has died.

The outlet reports that Brad Hanson, a biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Northwest Region in Seattle, was “on the water with other researchers for a health survey of the endangered southern resident orcas and confirmed the news.”

“Three of the four of us had been on the boat last week and were all very concerned about its viability then,” Hanson wrote in an email about J61, according to The Seattle Times. “So while today’s observations didn’t come as a complete surprise, the general feeling was one of profound sadness, not only for J35 (Tahlequah) knowing her history, but also knowing what the loss of a female means to the potential for SRKW (southern resident killer whale) recovery.”

The outlet added that researchers discovered a new calf, different from the late J61, had been born in J Pod, a group of orcas that includes Tahlequah. Researchers have not yet determined the sex of the new calf or the baby whale’s mother.

On Monday, Dec. 23, a team of researchers, including scientists and multiple experienced killer whale researchers from NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, conducted longer-term observations that allowed them to confirm the newborn calf’s mother as J35 (Tahlequah’s designation number).

The team was also able to confirm that J61 was a female, according to a Facebook post by the Center for Whale Research. The post noted that researchers were “eager to conduct follow-up observations” and that J35 is an experienced mother, but there were still some concerns about J61’s survival.

In a Dec. 21 Facebook post, the Center for Whale Research also shared that orca whales need “ample access to their food supply, mainly salmon” to survive.

“Every single birth counts and these whales need enough fish to be able to support themselves and their calves,” the post reads. “We continue to advocate for salmon recovery through habitat restoration, removal of dams, and rational management of fisheries in the Pacific Northwest.”

Tahlequah first made headlines in 2018 when she was observed grieving her deceased calf by swimming with it on her back for 1,000 miles over 17 days.

The orca gave birth to another calf on Sept. 4, 2020, a male who was named J57. The Center for Whale Research described the newborn as “healthy and precocious, swimming vigorously alongside its mother in its second day of free-swimming life.”

Per the Orca Conservancy, J61 Tahlequah gave birth to two previous calves. Her oldest, J47, also known as “Notch,” was born in 2010, and her second, J57, who became known as “Phoenix,” was born in 2020.