What's going on with J60? Facts and Updates
Update for January 29, 2024:
Sadly the Center for Whale Research has reported that calf J60 was not seen during their January 27th encounter with J-Pod. Given the passing around from female to female and lean condition of the calf apparent in the photos (as well as the overall high mortality rate for calves, particularly firstborn calves), this loss isn't altogether surprising, but is no less tragic.
The Center also offers this public statement regarding the maternity of J60:
"Given the calf’s association patterns and the pregnancy status of J pod females in late 2023, J42 was the calf’s most likely mother, however given the calf’s varied social partners in early life this will enter our dataset as a 'probable' relationship. Female J46 was also heavily pregnant in late 2023, however she was not as consistently associated with the calf as J42. This would have been the first observed calf for either female."
Original post:
So what's going on with J60? Here are the facts as we know them:
On December 26, NOAA researchers photographed a days-old calf traveling with J-Pod in Puget Sound. The calf was primarily traveling with J40 Suttles, a 19 year-old female who has yet to have a documented calf of her own. On December 29, the Center for Whale Research confirmed via additional photographs from NOAA that J60 is a male, and was reportedly still traveling with J40.
On January 3, the Center had their first direct encounter with J60 in Haro Strait. During this encounter, J60 was traveling with J16 Slick, a 51 year-old post-reproductive female. J40 was present in a different group of whales with no calf in her proximity. The calf with J16 was confirmed to be J60 by matching the eyepatch.
Even the early days after a new birth, it's not uncommon for a calf to travel with whales other than its biological mother. Close relatives can assist (for example, the first time J51 was seen, he was traveling in echelon position with J19, not J41) and sometimes attempted "calf-napping" occurs, where another female tries to steal the calf (one prominent example is K18 Kiska who tried to take L98 Luna from L67 Splash). This calf-napping behavior is poorly understood, but seems to happen when a female's strong maternal instincts lead her to try and take the calf from another whale. The above factors can lead to confusion for human observers as to who the mother of a newborn really is.
So who is J60's mom? We still don't know for sure. Does it matter who the mother is? To human observers, not really - our desire to know is driven by our close relationship to these whales and aspiration to keep 100% accurate scientific records. But for J60, it's critically important he knows who his mother is. If he's being passed from female to female, he may not end up imprinting on the correct whale, and he also may not be getting enough time to nurse (in all likelihood only his biological mother is lactating). At a couple weeks old, he is still looking quite thin and lumpy.
The following is purely speculation on my part: based on known life history patterns and the Center for Whale Researcher's speculations on pregnancies from last fall, it seems unlikely J40 or J16 is J60's mother. My current theory is that J40 - who has always associated with the youngest members of J-Pod and seems keen to be a mother herself - may have attempted a "calf-napping". It seems likely J60 is the offspring of either J36 or J42, the reproductive-age daughters of J16. Hopefully, J16 was with the calf as babysitting grandmother on the January 3rd encounter, and the calf is now settling in with its biological mom and will start putting on more weight.
Knowing these whales to the level we do can be hard on the heart sometimes. My heart aches for J40, J60, and the calf's actual mother in all this. But best case scenario is that J60 is now where he belongs and goes on to thrive. Hopefully there will be more encounters with all of J-Pod soon to help piece together more of this puzzle.
