Tahlequah: Saddest orca mother in the world loses her baby again

Washington (USA) – The orca glides gently through the water, repeatedly nudging its baby across the surface with its head. What at first glance looks like the intimate play of a mother with her child is actually heartbreaking: the little whale no longer moves, is dead. And his grieving mother loves him so much that she can’t say goodbye.

Tahlequah is the name of the orca that is now found with its dead offspring in Puget Sound off the coast of Washington state (USA) was spotted. According to researchers, the little one – a female – was born on December 20th.

The weeks after birth are “always dangerous for young calves as the mortality rate in the first year is very high,” the experts wrote about Tahlequah’s baby, according to The Guardian. They were right: the little whale was less than two weeks old. It is not yet known how he died.

Orca mother loses her second baby

Tahlequah is part of a group of around 70 killer whales that live in the waters of Puget Sound and stay there for several weeks each spring and fall.

Particularly sad: It is not the first time that she has lost one of her four babies. In 2018, she carried a dead calf – also a female – through the sea for 17 days and over 1,000 miles (around 1,600 km).

Numbers of killer whales are declining

The orca population has continued to decline in recent years. The reasons for this include, among other things, the decrease in prey and the stress caused by intensive shipping traffic. Killer whales are also being seen less and less in Puget Sound. This is also worrying for the state of the entire ecosystem.

The loss of calves – as Orca mother Tahlequah had to experience twice – is also so dramatic because the reproductive rate of Orcas is very low.