Orca of Seine found dead: it had to be killed due to an illness



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Orca of Seine found dead: it had to be killed due to an illness

The killer whale that had been trapped in the Seine between Rouen and Le Havre for a few weeks was found dead. The carcass of the cetacean was found by a team from the environmental group Sea Shepherd. The animal was seriously ill due to the skin by now deeply ulcerated: the authorities had announced that the animal would be killed to stop its suffering, but there was no need, as the unfortunate orca was found dead.

Sea Shepherd is making sure that the cetacean is not rammed from a boat, waiting for the authorities to recover the carcass for an autopsy. In recent days, the various attempts to bring it back to the sea had all failed, despite the use of sonar to try to bring the animal back to the Channel Sea.

Local authorities had decided to put an end to the suffering of the seriously ill animal: "The only viable solution is the euthanasia of the animal." The orca was first sighted on May 16, then was seen going up the Seine to Rouen.

The more he swam in the fresh water of the river, the more his discomfort was evident. Scientists said: "He has erratic and disoriented behavior. The sound recordings also revealed vocal calls similar to cries of anguish."

Habitat of the killer whale

The habitat of the orca is widespread in all the seas and oceans of the world and lives both in the abyss and in the shallows near the coasts, sometimes even reaching the mouths of some rivers.

Normally, however, the killer whale prefers to live in both arctic and antarctic cold waters where, in summer, it hunts among the ice floes. Only a few populations migrate to the equator in the summer, much like the gray whales that migrate near the US coast.

Sightings in the Mediterranean Sea are quite rare. It is difficult to estimate the number of individuals in the world, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature there are no precise data: one of the estimates considered most reliable is about 50,000 specimens.

The orca normally lives in groups consisting of the female, her young, sterile older females and an adult male. This is a basic matrilineal family also called pod. All the members of this family communicate with each other through sounds of various kinds and each pod has its own language.

The orca has a specific organ placed on its forehead that it can use as a sonar. All objects hit by sound waves send back an echo that killer whales perceive as an animal or a rock to be avoided.