Dead Baby Orca, Homeless Polar Bears, and Other Summer Tragedies

This summer has been full of tragedies for our planet’s wildlife. One of them happened as recently as July 24th when residents along the southwestern coast of Canada witnessed an emotional scene out in the water…

A killer whale mother who had just given birth to a baby girl calf saw her own child die within barely 30 minutes. Refusing to leave her behind, the mother balancing its dead calf on its nose to try and keep her afloat.

24 hours went by and the strong-willed mother continued to swim with her dead calf, starving and grieving.

Whenever the baby slipped back into the water, the mourning mother took 6-7 deep breaths to dive and pull her calf back to the surface.

A scientist at the Washington Bio-Protection Research Center said:" the killer whale knew that her baby was dead and would not come back; she was just too sad to let her go after barely 30 minutes of life. This behavior of carrying the child's dead body is one of the ways in which whale and dolphins express their sorrows. Killer whales are pregnant for longer than humans - usually 17 or 18 months. As some of our planet’s most socially sophisticated mammals, orcas’ love for their children are no less real than humans’.”

Unfortunately, orcas are on a dangerous path to extinction partly due to the decreasing availability of the Salmo salar, also known as the Atlantic salmon which makes up a good part of killer whales’ diets. Between 2007 and 2014, two thirds of newborn killer whales died shortly after birth. 

No newborn killer whale has survived in this sea over the past 3 years.

Today, only 75 killer whales remain alive in the region.

Polar bears are also severely endangered. They inhabit the Arctic Circle and have thrived in this very challenging habitat for centuries, yet they are now facing a much more difficult challenge: a hotter and more polluted planet that is constantly affecting their chances of survival. Temperatures in Arctic Circle are reaching record highs of 32℃ while polar bears are losing life-sustaining sea ice that is crucial for hunting, resting and breeding in all 19 regions of the Arctic where they can be found.

A female polar bear is holding her child close to her heart, barely balancing on a small block of ice that has been melting and drifting. With longer iceless periods, polar bears have to make their child swim further and further to find solid ground. Even though they are good at swimming, baby polar bears (and their mother) will feel exhausted after a long swim without any place to rest, and ultimately die in the warming waters of the Arctic ocean.

A starving polar bear struggles to climb onto a floating block of life-saving ice after 232 hours and 687km of relentless swimming in search of land. He ate nothing but sea trash in its 9 days of exploration and even a floating ice for rest.

An alarming and increasing number of dead bodies of polar bears can be found on seashores in this region, most of which die from exhaustion and starvation after being forced out of whatever ice block was left before being completed melted away.

The constantly-melting is also very bad news for the walrus species that is seeing its habitat gradually disappear.

A walrus mom was caught diving and holding up her child above water so the baby could rest while the mother was searching for floating ice to rest on.

However, the only floating ice she could find was full of other walruses. She had to fight for some space for herself and her child despite having had to swim for a long time and being utterly worn out.

Jennifer, a scholar who studies arctic meteorology, said: "The ice on the Arctic Ocean will completely disappear by 2040. As the central air conditioner of planet earth, the consequences of living with an ice-less Arctic, could be devastating for human beings."

Other than global warming, ocean pollution has become another major worldwide concern to the point where we can expect to count more plastic waste in the ocean than actual fish by 2050.  

More than 300 million plastic-made products are produced and dumped every year, millions of tons of which are discharged into our beautiful oceans.

Marine animals mistaken our waste for food and eat them. But their stomach can't digest them...

Animals also entwined by plastic products we’ve created, consumed and thrown away…

Even birds that were once happily flying in the sky are now dying a terrible death on land.

A scientist said:"It takes 470 years for plastic waste to to biodegrade. What's worse, the particle's diameter is shorter than 2mm, which makes it extremely difficult to look at with a naked eye.”

48% of our oceans’ marine life that lives 2000 meters below the surface has been found with pieces of ting plastic inside them every year. Human beings who eat fish that have ting pieces in them will likely see those pieces stay in their bodies.

There are many different actions each of us can taken to help protect our environment and the wildlife we coexist with:

1. No longer shopping with plastic bags;

2. Taking more methods of public transportation;

3. Buying reusable cups and lunch boxes; 

4. Reducing the use of disposable products; 

5. Paperless office;

6. Store food with glass containers rather than Tupperware;

7. Turning the lights and your computer off; trying to raise the air conditioner a little in the summer.

8. Planting some green plants in the right conditions;

9. Choosing cotton, linen and other natural textures as much as possible. 

We should do all we can to help endangered animals whose lives are threatened now more than ever before by global warming.

In addition to the above-mentioned list of actions you can take to help protect our environment, we suggest you give the new trendy and environmentally-friendly sport Plogging a try. Plogging is a combination of plucking while jogging around a city or nature in search of trash to pick up and throw away.

For more information on plogging, refer to:

This blue planet is home to ocean animals,

but also humans.

It needs our protection now more than ever.

As long as we are alive, 

we must try our best to bring it back to its original form so that mother orcas no longer have to watch their baby calves die and to help endangered polar bears and walruses find more permanent homes.

Source: Instagram优选

Supervisor: Crystal Huang

Editor : SC

Proofreader : Ed Bellin

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