An orca, who carried her dead calf for 17 days and swam over 1600 km of ocean in 2018, has given birth to a new baby, according to the Center for Whale Research.

A Facebook post said the calf was born to Tahlequah, known to researchers as J35. It was spotted for the first time on December 20 while swimming along with J pod in the Puget Sound area, CNN reported.

“The Center for Whale Research has received additional information on the new calf born into J pod. On Monday, 12/23, a team of researchers, including scientists from NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, were able to conduct longer-term observations of the new calf. These observations allow us to more confidently assign the new calf’s mother as J35 and give it the alpha-numeric designation J61,” read the post by the Center for Whale Research.

The team photographed the calf’s underside, confirming it was a female. “The team, including multiple experienced killer whale researchers, have expressed concern about the calf’s health based on the behavior of both J35 and J61. Early life is always dangerous for new calves, with a very high mortality rate in the first year. J35 is an experienced mother, and we hope that she is able to keep J61 alive through these difficult early days,” it added.

Michael Weiss, research director of the Center for Whale Research, told CNN that the researchers were initially not able to confirm the identity of the calf, but after observing it “confidently,” they assigned Tahlequah as the mother and the baby as alpha-numeric J61.

A nature enthusiast and photographer, who captured the calf, said he was shocked after seeing the calf. “I was just looking through my photos to see who the whales were that passed close to the port side of the ferry I was on and noticed a much smaller dorsal on one of the photos.” 

After scrolling through the series, the photographer realised “it was very tiny calf, much smaller than any of the known young ones in the group.” 

Tahlequah, or J35, made headlines six years ago after she swam with the body of her calf for about 1,000 miles of ocean. The calf had died within hours of birth. She swam with the body for more than two weeks to prevent it from sinking.

Two years later, she gave birth to her first known baby since the incident, J57, in 2020. She is also the mother of another orca named J47.

Wellington, New Zealand:

New Zealand scientists on Monday began dissecting a whale considered the rarest in the world, a species so elusive that only seven specimens have ever been documented. 

The dead spade-toothed whale washed ashore on New Zealand’s South Island earlier this year, offering a chance to study a deep-sea mammal that has never been seen alive. 

Measuring five metres (16.4 feet) long, the whale was winched off the beach in July and has sat in a special freezer since. 

Whale expert Anton van Helden said it was the first time scientists had been able to dissect a complete spade-toothed specimen, which belongs to the family of beaked whales. 

“This is a remarkable and globally significant opportunity,” he said.

The week-long dissection will help to fill in gaps about the whale’s behaviour, its diet, and even its basic anatomy.

“Beaked whales are the most enigmatic group of large mammals on the planet,” said Van Helden.

“They are deep divers that are rarely seen at sea, which presents real challenges for researching these marine animals. 

“This one is the rarest of the rare — only the seventh specimen known from anywhere in the world, and the first opportunity we have had to undertake a dissection like this.” 

New Zealand’s conservation department said the spade-toothed whale was the “rarest whale in the world”. 

The species was first described in 1874 from just a lower jaw and two teeth collected from the Chatham Islands off the east coast of New Zealand. 

That sample, along with skeletal remains of two other specimens found in New Zealand and Chile, enabled scientists to confirm a new species. 

Because so few specimens have been found and there have been no live sightings, the spade-toothed whale is classified as “data deficient” under the New Zealand Threat Classification System.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Sydney, Australia:

A whale struck a boat off the coast of eastern Australia on Saturday morning, killing one man and injuring another.

The two men were on the boat when it was hit and flipped at about 6 am local time (2000 GMT) in the waters off La Perouse, 14 kilometres (nine miles) southeast of Sydney, police said.

The first man was pulled from the water unconscious and died at the scene. The second was treated by paramedics and is in stable condition in hospital.

The collision was “a tragic accident”, Water Police acting superintendent Siobhan Munro said in comments reported by public broadcaster ABC.

She said the whale had breached near or possibly onto the small “run-about” boat.

“Right now there are lots of whales out there and there are lots of examples of whales breaching next to boats,” she added.

It comes less than two weeks after a four-metre humpback whale was struck in the head by a boat propeller off the coast of Western Australia.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)