Giving Compass' Take:

• The Atlantic discusses the recent saga of an orca that lost a calf and the remarkable grieving process witnessed by scientists: This opened up a discussion about conservation and animals as family.

• Groups dedicated to protecting endangered species often make impassioned cases for the personalities of animals, but the plight of the orcas (who are starving due to scarcity of Chinook salmon) are also connected to our changing world, adding even more urgency to act.

• Here's more on how climate change is choking marine ecosystems.

The first half of the killer whale’s scientific name — Orcinus orca — comes from the Latin for “of the realms of the dead.” For one population of orcas living in the waters of the Pacific Northwest, that etymology has taken on a newly dark resonance.

Last month, a 20-year-old female orca named Tahlequah (J35) gave birth to a male calf that died after half an hour. While many orca mothers have been seen carrying the bodies of their dead calves for a day or so, Tahlequah did so for 17 days — a heartbreaking tour that captured the world’s attention, and that ended last Friday. “I have never seen that kind of grief,” says Ken Balcomb from the Center for Whale Research.

Meanwhile, scientists noticed that a 3-year-old female named Scarlet (J50) was looking severely emaciated, with her ribs showing through her side. They have since given her a shot of antibiotics, via dart, and are considering feeding her more medications embedded within live salmon.

Both Tahlequah and Scarlet are part of the southern-resident killer whales — a community of 75 orcas that lives from spring to fall in the inland waterways of the Salish Sea in the Pacific Northwest. The group, which neither mingles nor mates with other orcas, consists of three pods, designated J, K, and L. They are among the most thoroughly studied animals on the planet, thanks to decades of attention from scientists, naturalists, whale-watching enthusiasts, and more. Some of these people call themselves “dorcas”; others prefer “orcaholics.”

These whale aficionados see these whales not as generic, faceless exemplars of their species, but as individuals with families and personalities. This familiarity makes the whales’ plight even harder to take.

Read the full article about the grieving Orca and conservation by Ed Yong at The Atlantic.