Whales are stranded at Farewell Spit near Nelson, New Zealand Friday, Feb. 10, 2017. New Zealand volunteers formed a human chain in the water at a remote beach on Friday as they tried to save about 100 whales after more than 400 of the creatures beached themselves in one of the worst whale strandings in the nation's history. About three-quarters of the pilot whales were already dead when they were found Friday morning at Farewell Spit at the tip of the South Island. (Tim Cuff/New Zealand Herald via AP) Female orca Wikie swims with her calf born by artificial insemination on April 19, 2011 at Marineland animal exhibition park in the French Riviera city of Antibes, southeastern France. Rescuers attempt attempt to push stranded whales back into the ocean at Ujong Kareng beach in Aceh province, Indonesia, Monday, Nov. 13, 2017. An official said 10 whales were stranded at the beach and attracted hundreds of onlookers who posed for pictures with them. (AP Photo/Syahrol Rizal) More than 150 pilot whales beached themselves on the west coast of Australia, and despite efforts to rescue them, the vast majority died, the Australia Parks and Wildlife Service announced Friday. Three members from the Queensland Boating and Fisheries Marine Animal Release Team cut the whale free from shark net (CNN) — A female orca whale is still apparently grieving her dead calf and still swimming with its body after more than two weeks, authorities say. “It’s heartbreaking to watch,” said Michael Milstein of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s West Coast Region. “This kind of behavior is like a period of mourning and has been seen before. What’s extraordinary about this is the length of time.” The adult – Tahlequah, or J35 as the whale has come to be known by researchers – and corpse were last seen definitively Thursday afternoon, 17 days after the baby’s birth. The female calf died after a few hours. The mother, preventing the body from sinking to the ocean floor, has been carrying it and nudging it toward the surface of the Pacific off the coast of Canada and the northwestern US. Orcas, also called killer whales, are highly social, and this pod was spotted Friday afternoon near Vancouver, British Columbia. Another struggling female in the same pod – J50, also known as Scarlet – was shot with antibiotics to fight an infection, since scientists worry that she has been losing a frightening amount of weight. These are grim signs. The Southern Resident population the females belong to has about 75 members, and has not had a successful birth in three years. In the last 20 years, only 25% of the babies have survived. ’Deep feelings’ not uncommon Scientists says grieving is common among mammals such as whales, dolphins, elephants and deer. Evidence shows the orca brain is large, complex and highly developed in areas dealing with emotions, said Lori Marino, president of the Whale Sanctuary Project. “It’s not surprising they’re capable of deep feelings, and that’s what (Tahlequah) is showing,” Marino said. “What exactly she’s feeling we’ll never know. But the bonds between mothers and calves are extremely strong. Everything we know about them says this is grieving.” Center for Whale Research founder Ken Balcomb said it’s “unprecedented” for an orca to keep this going for so long. He said the mother has traveled more than 1,000 miles with the corpse, which has begun to decompose. “It is a grief, a genuine mourning,” he said. Dwindling food source The problem for this group of killer whales is a dwindling food supply, scientists say. Most killer whales eat a wider diet, but this particular group of about 75 resident orcas eats just salmon, which have been overfished in the area for commercial consumption. Manmade contraptions, like hydroelectric power sources, block the salmons’ path to release eggs. Orca whales also do not have babies often or in large numbers, and when they do, it is a long process. It takes a calf a little under a year and a half to fully develop in the womb, and they nurse for another year. The Southern Resident population has reduced to 75 animals, and has not had a successful birth in three years. In the past 20 years, only 25% of the babies have survived. CNN’s AJ Willingham contributed to this story.<doc-sep>J35 was first seen carrying her baby after its death on July 24, in what scientists call a mourning ritual It’s been more than two weeks since a mother orca was first spotted carrying her dead calf off the coast of Seattle, and she shows no signs of stopping in what scientists call an “unprecedented” period of mourning. On Thursday, researchers with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Service said the grieving mother, her calf and their pod were spotted in Canadian waters around 1:30 p.m. PT on Wednesday. Get push notifications with news, features and more. “We’re obviously concerned, and monitoring the situation,” Brad Hanson, a wildlife biologist at NOAA, said during a status call with the media. “We’ve seen this sort of situation before, unfortunately.” According to Hanson and his fellow experts, the top concern right now is the mother’s desire to forage and feed. The longer she goes without doing either, the greater the chance she’ll lose her foraging abilities. Dawn Noren, a research biologist at NOAA, said that it’s possible the orca — named J35 — has podmates who’ve been foraging for her and giving her food. The fact that her body was likely prepped for lactation, too, means she has extra lipids in her blubber that will sustain her for a while. “A female killer whale … could probably fast for about four weeks before it gets into a detrimental state,” Noren said. However, the energy the mother is expending to push the calf is a concern as time goes on. “If this goes further, we might have an issue with her condition,” she added. The calf died not long after its birth on July 24. As its body fell into the water, the mother hauled it to the surface and began carrying it in on her nose what some scientists call a mourning ritual. One week later, members of her pod were seen taking turns holding the calf. Much of the observation of J35 is due to the fact that another of her podmates, J50, is ailing, and researchers are trying to intervene with that whale’s medical care. However, human intervention with J35 and her calf is off the table for now. “Obviously the connection [the pod] has formed with this calf is substantial and is something that we do have to take into account — what or how that might impact the whale from her behavioral state,” Hanson said. Killer whale research scientist Sheila Thornton said removing the calf would be a “very, very difficult decision” that it would come down to the health of the mother. “The connections between these animals are very strong, and to remove one from her familial group would have serious repercussions,” she explained. “I think there are many species who do undertake this sort of behavior. They are very intelligent animals, and the loss of this animal is quite profound.” For now, researchers and veterinarians working to treat J50 will continue to monitor J35, looking closely at her for skin lesions, any changes in the way she swims or surfaces or major changes in her breath, which could indicate that she is metabolizing lipids. Thornton added that the calf is still “surprisingly intact.”<doc-sep>A grieving orca whale that made headlines around the world for carrying the corpse of her dead calf for more than two weeks has finally released it, ending what scientists referred to as “a tour of grief.” The adult female named Tahlequah, who is known as J35 by scientists, was seen Saturday swimming without the body of her calf. “J35 frolicked past my window today with other J pod whales, and she looks vigorous and healthy,” Ken Balcomb, founding director of the Center for Whale Research, wrote in an email to the Seattle Times. “The ordeal of her carrying a dead calf for at least seventeen days and 1,000 miles is now over, thank goodness.” Advertisement We are saddened to report that a baby Southern Resident killer whale (SRKW) died a short time after it was born near Victoria, British Columbia on July 24, 2018. The newborn whale was reported alive and swimming with its mother, J35 ... https://t.co/ql0kDBU9LL pic.twitter.com/GQteYuPsv4 — Whale Research (@CWROrcas) July 26, 2018 Advertisement Advertisement The 20-year-old orca moved people around the world who were touched by her mourning after she gave birth on July 24. The 400-pound calf that was born that morning, which was the first live birth in the pod since 2015, only lived about half an hour. Scientists believe she had previously lost two other offspring since 2010. The most recent death “may have been emotionally hard on her,” Balcomb said Advertisement August 11, 2018 J35 update: "The ordeal of J35 carrying her dead calf for at least seventeen days and 1,000 miles is now over, thank goodness." - Ken Balcomb, Center for Whale Researchhttps://t.co/kQpA4WWbmg pic.twitter.com/cQIN13HgN6 — Whale Research (@CWROrcas) August 12, 2018 Although scientists often scoff at the way people love to anthropomorphize animals, in this case researchers said that the whale’s actions were what they looked like: mourning. “You cannot interpret it any other way,” Deborah Giles, a killer whale biologist with the University of Washington, told the Washington Post. “This is an animal that is grieving for its dead baby, and she doesn’t want to let it go. She’s not ready.” Scientists called the grieving period unprecedented for a southern resident killer whale, noting that while it wasn’t uncommon for dead babies to get carried around for part of a day, it never went on this long. Scientists were worried that Tahlequah’s health was suffering as a result of the long grieving period but the Center for Whale Research said that “this mother whale appears to be in good physical condition.”<doc-sep>
(CNN) — It was a journey of love, driven by a mother’s loss, stretching across a thousand miles of ocean as the world watched and wondered. An apparently grieving female orca whale who swam with the body of her dead calf for more than two weeks has stopped carrying the carcass, environmental officials said. The adult – Tahlequah, or J35 as she is known by researchers – and corpse were last seen definitively last week, 17 days after the baby’s birth. The female calf died after a few hours. The mother, preventing her baby from sinking, had been nudging it toward the surface of the Pacific off the coast of Canada and the Northwestern United States. Tahlequah was spotted Saturday chasing a school of salmon with her pod mates in the Haro Strait without the dead calf for a half-mile, the Washington-state based Center for Whale Research said. The carcass likely sunk to the bottom of the waters of the Salish Sea, according to the center. “Her tour of grief is now over, and her behavior is remarkably frisky,” the center said in the blog. Greenpeace USA Field Organizing Manager Ben Smith said in a statement: “Tahlequah united millions of people worldwide in heartbreak and love as she carried her dead calf for 1,000 miles.” Scientists are still worried about the health of a struggling sick female from the same pod. That whale – J50, also known as Scarlet – had been shot with antibiotics to fight an infection and had been losing a lot of weight. The Southern Resident population the females belong to has about 75 members and has not had a successful birth in three years. Only 25% of the babies have survived in the last 20 years. Greenpeace said the Southern Resident orca is an “important part of the culture and history of the Pacific Northwest,” and called for greater protection for them. “Unfortunately, that population is malnourished and in dire need of food and protection,” said Smith, a Seattle resident. “That is why our elected officials and civic leaders have a moral responsibility to take action and ensure that the orca’s main food source, salmon, recovers and is not further depleted.” CNN’s Ayana Archie and Jay Croft contributed to this report.