this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2024
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Carried how? Serious question. Not in her hands, quite sure of that.

[–] Lemminary 8 points 6 days ago

This is the best image I found with a quick search:


Source

And this is a similar scene as described by Sir David Attenborough (who is 98, holy cow!):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0a8HGJid-Jo

[–] NotMyOldRedditName 1 points 6 days ago

I have no idea, but they've also been known to wear dead seals as hats so....

[–] isyasad 52 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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.

[–] FlyingSquid 12 points 1 week ago (3 children)

On the other hand, they wear dead salmon as hats, so maybe they have their derpy points too.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thats what makes them so "human". They are eerily close to us on an emotional level.

[–] FlyingSquid 8 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] AtariDump 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] b3an 10 points 1 week ago
[–] isyasad 4 points 1 week ago

The orca from this story is from one of the same pods that was part of that trend, although she's too young (1998) to have been part of the original trend. But perhaps her mother once wore a salmon hat

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I understand why you said it, but other animals are very social, intelligent, and emotional animals and I dont want people to think whales are special to the point of excluding other species.

A good example I think are pigs, can very often be smarter and more emotionally responsive than dogs, and can have huge multifamily societies. In some herds, the whole group will get excited in anticipation of one of the sows giving birth.

[–] x00z 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Even cows cry when their calves are taken.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

That single fact is what makes milk unpalatable to me.

[–] triptrapper 2 points 6 days ago

On Alone: Australia, one of the contestants was a biologist. She refused to eat any animal that "cares for its young." I had never thought about differentiating that way.

[–] pyre 26 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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.

[–] Pacattack57 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

Orca traveling speed is 8 km/hr. Human walking speed is 5 km/hr. 1000 m is roughly 1600 km. So 1600km is 200 hrs of traveling for an Orca.

200 hours times the speed of humans waking is 1000km. Therefore the human equivalent would be a human walking 621 miles.

Quite significant even at Orca speeds

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Miles should be renamed to Orca km

[–] pyre 1 points 1 week ago

thank you! I won't reference the annoying sub but good work

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

Google "621 orca stacks" for more information

[–] tb_ 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I need that measurement in miles

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Average human lifespans 75 Average orca lifespan say 35

75 / 35 is 2.21

Assuming that math is equivalent to dog years

A human year would be 2.2 years to each orca year

So if we decide that same thing works for distance?

That would be like 451.1 miles for a human to carry their dead offspring?

But I find it would be more approximate to use body size as the modifier for perceived distance?

So let’s take the average height of 5.5 feet for an adult human woman

Dirty google search of about 20 feet averages length of adult female orca

So 20/5.5 gives us 3.63 orca to 1 human foot

Making the answer about:

275.48 orca miles (sizes based) Or 451.1 orca miles (lifespan based)

[–] AngryCommieKender 2 points 1 week ago

Well they have an average migration pattern that is 7,000 miles round trip. So 1/7th of an orca migratory pattern?

[–] pyre 1 points 1 week ago

sorry for the confusion, I meant length of distance, not lifespan. so not orca years, but orca kilometers. i assume one orca kilometer is longer than a human kilometer since orcas are larger and probably they travel faster in water than we do on land on average. and I assume there's no such thing as an orca mile because everyone keeps saying orcas are smart creatures.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 week ago (3 children)

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.)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago

BTW, the salmon fashion trend is back.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

Can't make a good joke without saying something you shouldnt. Interesting thing about the salmon! Whales are crafty aren't they?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago

More like a pretty orcid joke, am I right?