A mother’s love for her child knows no bounds: be that a human or another living being. Everyone loves their children equally. And there is nothing more terrible for the parents, than the death of their child.
American marine biologists witnessed a touching and sorrowful story. For many years scientists have been following a flock of killer whales in the waters near Washington. There are only 75 of them left. Only during the last 6 months their number has decreased by 8 whales. That’s why, they are under the constant control of people.
On June 24, a 20-year-old female killer whale named Tahlequah gave birth to a cub. Because of this, scientist began to observe her more carefully. At first, people didn’t notice anything strange. As always, a mother was teaching her child to swim, pushing it with her nose. But, unfortunately, they started to pay attention to something else. The little whale wasn’t swimming without its mother. Most probably, it had died right after the birth.
However, Tahlequah didn’t part with her child. She went on pushing her child with her big nose keeping its body on the surface. The reaction of the other whales was also very interesting. They all helped the unfortunate mother together. Whenever Tahlequah was resting, her siblings kept the body of the cub afloat.
Animal rights activists say, that such a behavior of marine mammals after the death of their children is a common thing. Orcas, dolphins and whales can swim with the bodies of their dead cubs for about a week. But Tahlequah didn’t leave her dead child for 17 days. During all this time, the killer whale swam more than one and a half thousand kilometers to the Canadian province of British Columbia. Here the mother had to part with her cub forever. The little orca’s body began to decompose, and Tahlequah was forced to let it go into the dark depths of the ocean.
