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Full Version: Grieving Orca carries her dead baby for days
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The southern population of Orcas have had a hard time producing calves. One was finally born, but it soon died. The grieving mother just couldn't let it go. She kept it afloat on her head for days.

https://au.news.yahoo.com/unbelievably-s...48745.html

I can understand her reluctance to let the baby go. She knows it is gone and so do the other females with her. 
Now I am wondering if they were having a bit of a memorial gathering to show support for the mother and to help her say goodbye. Isn't that what out funerals and visitations are all about?

I feel for the whole southern  population of Orcas. Their numbers are declining and they have no surviving children.  Smiley19
Maybe they are having a memorial gathering. But the mother's devotion is pure love. How poignant and moving. The mother may sense the baby's energy around her and still feels it is with the body. Perhaps it's the "etheric energy" of the baby before it went to Spirit? Sometimes a Soul will stay around quite a while (days to weeks) before transitioning.

Visitations are something else. They often happen, and can happen even years later, and there is no "goodbye" involved....more a kind of greeting and assurance that they have not forgotten us -loved ones, and are still there, but now in a more subtle way.

It is sad that the Orcas are not producing enough healthy young. I don't know enough about that.....what is affecting their breeding? (most likely something humans are doing...)?
Quote:It is sad that the Orcas are not producing enough healthy young. I don't know enough about that.....what is affecting their breeding? (most likely something humans are doing...)?
 I think pollution and lack of food are big issues. 
We have depleted the Orca's food supply and it is having a long term effect on their reproductive health. I suppose a female Orca who is too thin would have a hard time carrying a baby to term. The baby would be underweight and the mother would not have a good milk supply.

The calf was born alive so the mother did have some time with it. She wouldn't want to let the body go until she was sure the baby's spirit had gone.
I think it is beautiful that the other females stayed with the mother to provide support. They would be grieving too. Their pod has no calves. They must be aware of the problem. Losing their only baby would effect them all.
Finally the young mother has been spotted without her dead calf. She carried the calf for 17 days. She is still young, we can hope that she recovers from her loss and goes on to have other calves that survive.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world...88486.html

It is just so sad to think of how much she has suffered when we know the whales are in trouble because of human activity.