Rare And Unexpected Baby Orca Born In Puget Sound

A newborn baby orca has been spotted chugging happily along side its mother in Puget Sound off the coast of Seattle, Washington. The appearance of this rare baby orca marks the first successful live birth of the dwindling animals in Puget Sound in two-and-a-half years.

While Ken Blacomb, scientist for the Center for Whale Research, was monitoring what is known as “J-pod” — members of a pod of orcas known to live in Puget Sound — the newborn orca was spotted with its presumed mother, J-16. Its mother is a 43-year-old orca who has had three surviving calves, and two non-surviving. The baby killer whale appeared to be just a day or two old, and healthy. It has been designated as J-50.

The scientists for the Center for Whale Research had no clue that J-16 pregnant, saying, “No other female has given birth at over 42 years of age in the four decades of demographic field studies of the Southern Resident orcas. J16 was not expected to be carrying a calf due to her advanced age.”

The center also said that researchers probably won’t know the baby orca’s gender for several months, until the calf’s ventral markings can be seen.

Wildlife biologist Brand Hanson noted that right before dawn last Tuesday, the satellite tracking showed that the whale pod took an unusual trip, ducking into a narrow, protected passage between islands in an archipelago, an area where the orcas had never been seen to travel before.

“I was sort of scratching my head about why they’d go into that area,” Hanson said. “The whales tend to use particular channels, and it was a very unusual travel route. This is pure speculation, but they may have been seeking an area of sheltered water for the birth.”

The unexpected birth of the baby orca brings the total number of southern resident killer whales in that area up to a total of 78. Orcas are an endangered species in both the U.S. and Canada. The Puget Sound orca population faces a distinct danger, as their favorite food of chinook salmon is in a limited supply in that area. On top of that, an estimated 35 to 40 percent of all baby orcas die within their first year.

A baby orca is born at seven to eight feet in length, weighing at about 400 pounds. The mother orca is pregnant for about 17 months, and tends to nurse their babies for at least a year. For an orca to fully mature, though, takes until their teens, with females maturing at a more rapid pace than males.

The surprise birth of the baby orca is especially welcome because the J-pod just suffered the loss of a pregnant 19-year-old orca in December. The fetus had died, which resulted in a bacterial infection that killed the mother orca.

And, simply put, if orca calves do not survive, the iconic black-and-white killer whales face certain extinction.

To see these beautiful creatures in action, click here to watch amazing footage of a killer whale breaching just feet away from a single man in a kayak.

[Image via the Washington Times]