This was announced by scientists from the center for whale research in the u.S. City of friday harbor over the weekend. The heartbreaking images from the waters at the northernmost tip of the US west coast had gone around the world. The calf was less than an hour old.
"Her mourning journey is now over and her behavior is remarkably lively," whale researchers announced. The scientists had given the animal the name "J35". Pictures showed the mother in good physical condition. Together with their conspecifics they hunt salmon again. In an unparalleled journey of suffering, the mother swallow whale carried her young one more than 1600 kilometers with her. The carcass has probably sunk into the sea and will therefore not be able to be examined by scientists.
According to scientists, the death of this young orca whale shows the problems of the orca population on the coast in canadian british columbia. The animals are in great danger. In the past three years, 100 percent of the pregnancies in this population have failed because the whales did not have enough food. The orcas’ main food source is chinook salmon. These, like the whale population, are in great danger.
It’s not unusual for a swallow whale to carry a dead juvenile for several days, the researchers said. The animals had a particularly strong relationship with their offspring. Researchers had already observed earlier that animals did not separate from a dead calf for up to a week.