The mother orca that went viral for carrying the corpse of her deceased calf for over two weeks, has just lost her second baby, scientists in charge of her reported.
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The sad and lamentable story is repeated in J35, as the mother orca has been identified. The first calf she lost was in 2018, and before Christmas, experts reported that she had been seen with a second female calf, named J61. But sadness invades J35 once again.
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Second calf that dies for the mother orca
The scientists announced that the herd sounded the alarms a few days after the discovery, saying they were "concerned" about the health of the calf based on "the behavior of both J35 and J61".
"The first years of life are always dangerous for young whale calves, with a very high mortality rate during the first year," posted the Whale Research Center on Facebook just four days after the discovery. But not all hope is lost."
The team also discovered that another calf had been born in the critically endangered whale group. Neither its mother nor its gender has been confirmed. The herd, which roams the vast Pacific Ocean between Washington state and British Columbia, faces numerous threats, including ship noise and disturbances that hinder hunting, food pollution, and a lack of food sources," NY Post adds on its website.
Photographs with her second whale calf
A marine nature photographer and expert was the one who captured the tender moment: the tiny dorsal fin of the newborn peeking out.
"My first reaction upon seeing the calf was one of total shock. I was looking at my photos to see which whales were passing by on the port side of the ferry I was on, and I noticed that one of the photos had a much smaller dorsal fin," said the photographer."
“As I was going through the series, I realized it was a very small calf, much smaller than any of the known calves in the group. Based on the size and color of the calf, I realized it was a new calf traveling with J35, my calf, the whale that started my obsession,” he said on his Facebook profile.