Anise Ramili
Appearances
Global News Podcast
Mike Johnson survives razor-thin vote to remain US House Speaker
happened a couple of times before but never this long and of course this is baffling for all of us scientists we don't really understand why she's carrying this diseased calf for so long but of course as humans we can relate of course because we understand grief and it's very difficult to explain grief for a species that we cannot properly communicate with and that we don't fully understand but your guess would be that taliqua is experiencing grief
Global News Podcast
Mike Johnson survives razor-thin vote to remain US House Speaker
Absolutely. These killer whales are social creatures. We know they form important bonds with their family members, members of their pods. And so the fact that she's carrying this calf for so long shows that she has some emotions because of course it costs her a lot of energy to push this calf around. Last time it was for over a thousand miles and over two weeks.
Global News Podcast
Mike Johnson survives razor-thin vote to remain US House Speaker
So it is not something that's easy for her to do because while she's pushing the calf, she cannot feed properly. So it's not overreaching to say that she's grieving.
Global News Podcast
Mike Johnson survives razor-thin vote to remain US House Speaker
I think it's just worth noting that in between the two events, she did have a healthy calf. Its name is Phoenix, or J57. And it was born in the fall of 2020. And this calf did make it past its first year. It's still healthy. It's still alive. But of course, this is extremely troubling. And this is, in this case, a female. And we know that this population is lacking females.
Global News Podcast
Mike Johnson survives razor-thin vote to remain US House Speaker
There's only 23 reproductive females left in this population. and 73 individuals. And we know that we need all the females that we can get to bring this population back to healthy numbers.
Global News Podcast
Mike Johnson survives razor-thin vote to remain US House Speaker
So there's a bunch of different factors. It is a population that lives in close proximity to a very populated human area. And so, of course, that introduces a lot of issues. And we know that it's a population that loves to feed on Chinook salmon. And we know that there's competition with humans.
Global News Podcast
Mike Johnson survives razor-thin vote to remain US House Speaker
There's also a lack of salmon due to a lot of dams being built on the rivers where the salmons reproduce. And so there is a lack of food for southern resident killer whales, and we know it because they have generally poor body condition.
Global News Podcast
Mike Johnson survives razor-thin vote to remain US House Speaker
Still to come... We don't really understand why she's carrying this deceased calf for so long. But of course, as humans, we can relate, of course, because we understand grief.