Cruel twist for killer whale who carried dead calf for 17 days hit by new tragedy

Headshot of Peta Rasdien
Peta Rasdien
The Nightly
Tahlequah captured the world’s attention in 2018 when she reportedly spent weeks keeping her dead calf with her as she traversed the ocean.
Tahlequah captured the world’s attention in 2018 when she reportedly spent weeks keeping her dead calf with her as she traversed the ocean. Credit: Instagram

A killer whale who became famous after carrying the dead body of her calf for 17 days across the ocean while mired in grief, has once again been hit by tragedy.

The whale known as Tahlequah — or J35 to the scientists that follow pods of whales in north Washington waters — captured the world’s attention in 2018 when she reportedly spent weeks keeping her dead calf with her as she traversed the ocean.

The Center for Whale Research has revealed that the mother whale is again mourning the loss of a newborn, known as J61, saying it was particularly upsetting given her history.

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“The death of any calf in the SRKW population is a tremendous loss, 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 who has now lost two out of four documented calves – both of which were female,” they wrote in a post on social media.

“The entire team at the Center for Whale Research is deeply saddened by this news and we will continue to provide updates when we can.”

They discovered the calf had died on December 30 and have revealed that since then Tahlequah had again been spotted carrying the body of the deceased calf, J61, with her.

“This behavior was seen previously by J35 in 2018 when she carried the body of her deceased calf for 17 days. We hope to have more information on the situation through further observation and will provide more details at that time.”

The terrible news has been greeted with an out pouting of grief from people on social media.

“This is devastating 💔 sending prayers and love to J35. my heart breaks alongside hers,” wrote one.

Another wrote, “J35, I’m so sorry you have to go through this again. I wish she knew how loved she is”.

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