NZ in desperate bid to keep baby orca alive, find its mother
WELLINGTON: Wildlife rescuers in New Zealand were scrambling to keep a stranded baby orca alive on Wednesday, as volunteers scoured waters off Wellington to find the calf’s mother.
The killer whale, a male aged four to six months, washed ashore on rocks just north of the capital on Sunday and was refloated by wildlife officers after distressed members of its family pod swam off, the department of conservation said.
Named Toa - Maori for “warrior” - the 2.5m orca is unweaned and unable to survive alone in the ocean.
“He’s still young, that’s one of the big challenges we have,” marine species manager Ian Angus said.
“We have to think about how we ensure we get him back to his mother because he needs help, certainly with the feeding. How do we locate his mother? That’s the second big challenge, which we’re now struggling with.”
Angus said an air and sea search was under way off Wellington for Toa’s pod and the public were encouraged to report any orca sightings.
Toa is being kept in a makeshift pen set up between two jetties at the seaside suburb of Plimmerton.
It is being fed via a tube every four hours and monitored around the clock by wetsuitclad volunteers to ensure it does not beach itself again.
Angus was cautiously optimistic about the young whale’s future but said there were no facilities in New Zealand that could care for the animal longterm, making it imperative its mother be found as soon as possible.
“He’s been through quite a stressful experience but his health at the moment looks good.”