Orca Carries Dead Calf for Weeks Before Letting Go

An orca that carried her dead calf for 17 days has let it go, said researchers on Aug. 11.

The killer whale, called J35 and is also known as Tahlequah, was seen chasing salmon with other orcas in the Haro Strait near the U.S.-Canada border. The whale was no longer carrying around her dead calf—something she had done since July 24, the Center for Whale Research in Washington state wrote on its website.

“Her tour of grief is now over and her behavior is remarkably frisky. Telephoto digital images taken from shore show that this mother whale appears to be in good physical condition,” according to the research website.

It added: “There had been reports from brief sightings by whale-watchers two days ago that J35 (Tahlequah) was not pushing the calf carcass in Georgia Strait near Vancouver, BC; and, now we can confirm that she definitely has abandoned it.”

The calf’s body likely “sunk to the bottom of these inland marine waters of the Salish Sea, and researchers may not get a chance to examine it for necropsy,” researchers said.

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“I’m hoping this ordeal is over,” the center’s founder, Ken Balcomb, told ABC News. The 20-year-old whale’s emotional state is not yet known, he added to the Seattle Times because losing the calf “may have been emotionally hard on her.”

“She is alive and well and at least over that part of her grief. Today was the first day that I for sure saw her. It is no longer there,” he added.

Researchers had originally planned to study the calf’s cause of death.