Featured Image Credit: (Center for Whale Research)
The plight of the killer whales is a depressing tale to follow. It seems that the whales are slowly dying off and inching closer to extinction. However, that is not necessarily going to be the case. A recent killer whale calf sighting is bringing hope to everyone that is watching the killer whales on their painfully slow recovery journey.
The new calf was spotted swimming with the Southern Residents, the most endangered group of killer whales on the planet.
Andrew Trites, the director of the University of British Columbia’s Marine Mammal Research Unit, had this to say about the sighting, “I couldn’t believe it. Finally a piece of good news. We haven’t seen a new calf in three years. We hear increasingly of animals that are in poor condition, and likely going to die, we’ve been losing animals. The only way this population is going to pull out of this tailspin it’s been in is to start having new babies. To hear that there’s a new calf is the best piece of news I could imagine hearing at this point.”
Although it is amazing news, the young calf has a rough road ahead of it. The rough seas of the winter can make it difficult to successfully raise the calf, but it is exciting that there is a calf to be raised at all.
Check out the video below of the newborn calf swimming with the other Killer Whales:
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