Its a Girl! Newborn in Endangered Orca Pod

This new year has started off pretty good for conservationists and killer whales alike, after a pod of endangered orcas off the coast of Washington State welcomed its first newborn in more than two years. The baby whale is thought to have been born right around the wrap-up of December, and has since been identified as a hale and hearty female calf.

The new baby whale is believed to be the 50th member of the J-pod, which spends a good deal of its time near the Puget Sound, a large Pacific Ocean inlet. For researchers who designate these whales alpha-numerically, the newborn is simply called "J50."

J50 "was first seen in the San Juan/Gulf Island archipelago on the 30th of December when it was estimated to be 4-10 days old, and it quickly became the subject of mystery because it was swimming alongside a female whale that is estimated to be 43 years old - beyond the age calculated for reproductive senescence in these whales," the Center for Whale Research (CWR) reported in a recent update.

The Center suggests that it may be that J50 is actually hanging out with her grandmother while the whale suspected to be her actual mother, a 16-year-old daughter of J16, remains missing in action.

This daughter, J36, was a source of hope for the J-pod, which has suffered from tragedy just last month when 19-year-old Rhapsody (J32), an expecting mother, suffered from pregnancy complications and was eventually found dead along the Georgia Strait.

"The loss of J32 was a disturbing setback," Brad Hanson, a wildlife biologist with the NOAA, had told Live Science.

He added, however, that conservationists watching the J-pod then simply had to place their faith in J36, who had appeared healthy and perfectly capable of birthing a new calf for the pod.

"These whales are very caring for one another, and baby-sitting is not unusual, especially with grandmothers," the CWR added. "The presumed maternities in our catalogue now spanning 40 years of precise photo-identification have all been verified by genetic studies, so we have to be careful and not leap to conclusions about exact relationships from only two sightings of this baby."

Still, while the new birth is a good sign (no matter who the mother is), it's been three years since the J-pod has produced a baby that has survived more than a year. In that time, the mere 77 whales that are left in the Puget Sound continue to decline, placing a lot of hope and expectation on J50's tiny shoulders.

For more great nature science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).