A newborn orca calf has been sighted in Puget Sound in Washington state, sparking cautious hope for the endangered southern resident killer whale population.
The Centre for Whale Research (CWR) reported that the calf was spotted on Dec. 20, swimming alongside J35, a female orca known as Tahlequah, from J pod. However, researchers have yet to conduct their first official encounter to confirm the calf’s parentage.
“We don’t know yet for sure that the calf is hers,” said Michael Weiss, research director at CWR. “These whales do babysit … so I really want to get on the water, have some prolonged observations, and some repeated observations to confirm who the calf belongs to.”
J35,or Tahlequah, gained global attention in 2018 when she carried the body of her deceased calf for 17 days, which has since been described as a “tour of grief.” The mother has two other successful calves, J47 …