A dead orca calf that washed ashore west of Sooke in early May appears to have been a casualty of a strong windstorm that swept the coast with 40-knot winds, results of a necropsy show.
"This birth, combined with a huge storm, was bad timing for the calf," Paul Cottrell, marine mammal co-ordinator with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, said yesterday.
Analysis based on DNA reveals the male orca was not one of the endangered southern residents but a member of a transient pod.
The death rate among orca calves in resident populations is steep, as high as 40 per cent over the first year.
The survival rate for transients is believed to be similar, although the transient animals prove more difficult to track.
A necropsy carried out by veterinarian Stephen Rafferty showed the whale was between a half a day and two days old
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Baby+orca+killed+severe+storm/3196331/story.html#ixzz0rveDDPso
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