Brave Little Hunter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brave Little Hunter (Nuu-chah-nulth: kʷiisaḥiʔis, a name given to her by the Ehattesaht First Nation)[1] is a Bigg's killer whale that gained notoriety after she became beached with her mother near Zeballos, British Columbia.[2]
Brave Little Hunter became stranded with her mother, who was pregnant, in a tidal lagoon.[3] Efforts were made to rescue both whales but the calf's mother did not survive.[4] The calf remained trapped in the same lagoon for a month.[5] The local tidal conditions meant that there were only 30 minutes each day in which the orca could leave.[6] A nearby sandbar also made it difficult for the calf to travel into open ocean.[7] While rescue efforts were unsuccessful, the orca eventually left the lagoon unaided by following a boat at night in April 2024.[1] She was then observed hunting birds and seals on her own.[8] While the calf had relatives in the area, she was not spotted with them.[9] It was speculated that she may have been accepted by an unrelated pod as this has sometimes happened to other orphaned calves.[10] As of September 2024, she has only ever been spotted by herself.[5]