Photo: Dave Ellifrit, Center for Whale Research
Washington’s Center for Whale Researchconfirmed the birth on Wednesday, a new arrival that “thrilled” their experts. The calf was born into the L Pod — one of the family groups that make up the West Coast’s endangered southern killer whale community.
“It is nicely filled out and appears to be a perfectly normal little calf,” Dave Ellifrit, an identification expert with the Center for Whale Research, who captured pictures of the newborn, said in a statement.
Dave Ellifrit, Center for Whale Research
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Drs John Durban and Holly Fernbach, SR3
“It’s just wonderful to see a new birth this early in the year; it’s pretty exciting,” Deborah Giles, a researcher with the University of Washington’s Center for Conservation Biology, told the outlet. “It gives you hope for the other ones.”
The other calvesborn into the J pod family in 2020, J57 and J58, were also observed while experts were out identifying the new L-pod calf. The center said the J-pod calves “looked to be doing well.”
source: people.com
