Tahlequah, an orca well-known for having carried her dead calf for over two weeks back in 2018, has been struck by a heartbreaking event once again. After it was recently announced that the orca had given birth, the new calf has since died – and Tahlequah has been spotted carrying this calf too.
The calf, a female named J61, was first spotted in the Puget Sound area on December 20, 2024. However, just 11 days later on New Year’s Eve, a team with the Center for Whale Research (CWR) – an organization involved in the conservation and study of the Southern Resident orca population – discovered that J61 had not survived.
“The death of any calf in the SRKW population is a tremendous loss,” said CWR in a Facebook post announcing the news, “but the death of J61 is particularly devastating, not just because she was a female, who could have one day potentially led her own matriline but also given the history of her mother J35 [Tahlequah] who has now lost two out of four documented calves – both of which were female.”
While the cause of the calf’s death is unknown, unusual behavior seen previously between J61 and Tahlequah had led the CWR team to believe that J61 had been born prematurely and was experiencing health problems, while Tahlequah had also been observed exhibiting “subnormal body condition” back in October.
In an update to the announcement, CWR also confirmed that Tahlequah had been observed carrying the body of the recently deceased calf with her. This is not the first time the orca mother has shown such behavior; in 2018, she carried another of her young around for 17 days straight, covering 1,609 kilometers (1,000 miles).
The calf is thought only to have lived for around a week.
While there are multiple theories as to why Tahlequah – and other cetaceans – might be showing such behavior, one interpretation is that it’s a sign of grief.
“We know that the bond between killer whale mothers and their offspring is incredibly strong, about as strong as a social bond can be,” Michael Weiss, CWR’s research director, told National Geographic. “We know that J35 is not ready to let go. I think that is as far as we can, or need, to interpret her emotional state at this point.”
There are also concerns that Tahlequah may not get enough food if she continues to carry the calf’s body for an extended period of time, as she did back in 2018 – the CWR plans to continue keeping a close eye on her.
“The entire team at the Center for Whale Research is deeply saddened by this news,” they wrote. “We hope to have more information on the situation through further observation and will provide more details at that time.”
