OkcPets Magazine January 2021

January/February 2021 • OKC Pets 25 What does a landlocked state and a southeastern town like Tahlequah have to do with killer whales off the coast of the Pacific Northwest? Turns out, quite a lot. In fact, just a simple shared name has created a new push for Oklahomans to get involved in marine con- servation and the fight to save the endangered Southern Resident killer whales. In November, Oklahoma City’s Kirkpatrick Foundation announced a dollar-for-dollar match, up to $20,000, to help support SR³, a nonprofit marine wildlife rescue and research center in Des Moines, Washington, and other animal groups. The Kirkpatrick Foundation also spurred a connection between the Oklahoma town of Tahlequah, a city where environmental and animal protection has a vibrant history, and a killer whale pod that captured the world’s attention and hearts in 2018. The world watched with broken hearts as a Southern Resident killer whale named Tah- lequah, a member of the J Pod of Southern Resident Killer Whales, mourned her lost baby. For 17 days and 1,000 miles, Tahlequah pushed her dead calf with her head, and the world grieved with her. The Southern Resident killer whale was listed as an endangered species in 2005, and today, only 75 of these killer whales exist in the world. When Louisa McCune, execu- tive director of the Kirkpatrick Foundation, learned that the grieving mother gave birth to a healthy male whale in September of this year, she was thrilled. She also learned for the first time that the mother whale was named Tahlequah. “Eight years ago, the Kirkpatrick Founda- tion debuted our initiative to make Oklahoma the safest and most humane place to be an animal,” said McCune. “When I learned the good news that Tahlequah had given birth again, I just became instantly obsessed with this wonderful news. I also felt like this might be an opportunity for our state to get connect- ed to these charismatic marine mammals that are far from our landlocked state.” In November, Oklahoma’s Kirkpatrick Foundation, Save the Illinois River, and the City of Tahlequah announced a new partner- ship with Washington’s SR 3 (Sealife Response, Rehabilitation and Research) and the City of Des Moines, Washington, to launch the “Oklahoma Killer Whale Project.” The project also creates a connection be- tween Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and Tahlequah, ‘Oklahoma Killer Whale Project’ to Support Endangered Southern Resident Killer Whales WRITTEN BY: Heide Brandes