Summary
Tahlequah, the orca who gained global attention in 2018 for carrying her dead calf for 17 days across 1,000 miles, has given birth to a new calf, designated J61.
The Center for Whale Research expressed concern for J61’s survival, as orca calves face high mortality in their first year.
Tahlequah, part of the endangered Southern Resident orcas, now has three surviving offspring.
With only 73 whales left in the population, threats like pollution, food scarcity, and contaminants remain critical challenges to their survival.
i know this isn’t really appropriate, but you know how we have dog years to sort of imagine how significant a year is in a dog’s life?
I think we need the same with length measurements for big sea creatures like orcas and whales. 1000 miles I’m sure is still a long long way for an orca but this made me wonder exactly how long it would feel for an orca as opposed to a human.
From a quick search: there haven’t been conclusive studies, but orcas can as old as 30 or 40.
So, given that “dog years” are essentially the life span of a human divided by the life span of a dog, “orca years” would be twice or thrice that of a human.
Orcas are very intelligent, emotional, and social, arguably moreso than any other non-human animal. For this orca individual, the reality was doubtlessly just as much of a dramatic and emotional journey as it appears in the headline.
On the other hand, they wear dead salmon as hats, so maybe they have their derpy points too.
Thats what makes them so “human”. They are eerily close to us on an emotional level.
It’s definitely easier to relate to an animal when they do something silly and you know they’re just being silly. That’s why it’s so easy to relate to dogs sometimes. Dogs like to be silly and so do we.
By the time she let the baby’s carcass go, she had carried the calf across 1,000 miles on her head.
Maybe it was just an attempt at creating an another odd orca fashion trend?
(Man, that was a pretty morbid joke.)
BTW, the salmon fashion trend is back.
More like a pretty orcid joke, am I right?
