They put Colin the baby whale to sleep yesterday. Poor thing. Why couldn't they capture a mama whale and?

Question

put them together so Colin could feed off her and live? >:^(

Answer 1

Oh, that is sad. I read where the baby was trying to nurse off of the yatch, but I didn't know they put it to sleep. Poor little thing. Nature can be cruel. It never even had a chance  right from the begining. I wonder if it's Mother is searching frantically for it somewhere. RIP little guy.

Answer 2

They couldn't find a mother whale for it so they put it down. I hope they get sacked from their boss!

Answer 3

because they r mean  

Answer 4

Mother whales won't allow another whale's baby to feed from it, so unfortunately this idea wouldn't work.  Colin's mother appears to have died as well, an adult humpback whale's body has been found off the coast, so she didn't abandon Colin because anything was wrong with the baby, but because she had died.

There was a recipe for humpback whale milk widely available on the net and wildlife groups(Sea Shepherds) even were prepared to make up this milk and give it to Colin and someone actually had the milk waiting to go, but bureaucracy and National Parks and Wildlife Service stood in the way of allowing anyone to help Colin.

Their excuse was that Colin could die from an allergic reaction, which was ridiculous because they were planning to put the calf down anyway.

The Pittwater Bay where Colin was would have been the perfect place to keep him and he would have returned for more milk and eventually at 6+ months of age(usual weaning age, combined milk and krill &  certain species of fish), hopefully have begun to wean fully off the milk at 11/12 months and started to migrate south.

Unfortunately nothing can be done now to save Colin, but with so many ordinary Australians who wished Colin to live, why can't we look to the future and help out wildlife groups who desperately need volunteers, equipment and donations?(I am not affiliated with this group but found this site because I want to help save whales)

A sad goodbye to Collette(Colin)  RIP baby :(

http://www.seashepherd.org/editorials/ed...

Answer 5

Grow up.

What if we were to round you up,  put you in a room and then bring in a baby.  As we push it towards you we say,  feed this.

Besides,  without Japanese assistance how could we ever expect to capture a mama whale?  

Answer 6

There would be no guarantee that the female whale would allow Colin to nurse. But I wish they would have tried to feed him, but at least Colin isn't suffering anymore.

R.I.P. little guy.

Answer 7

A momma whale would have a baby already. If you could capture one it would be cruel to the momma whale to stress her and trap her for months. She would more than apt reject the baby anyway.

Seems like somebody could have come up with a big floating bottle for it since it was attempting to nurse of a yacht.

Answer 8

If the mother whale didn't recognize Colin as her own she might not have let him feed. Besides, isn't it just as inhumane to capture another whale? Where would they keep it? Whales don't do well in captivity. They couldn't just let Colin go free, because even if they released him near a mother whale its likely that he would have just been left behind. Either that, or the baby wouldn't have registered that this was his mother, and perhaps never even though to feed. The only thing scientists could have done, really, was raise Colin in captivity, but like i said before it is almost impossible to keep a whale healthy in captivity, especially a humpback. And I doubt they have whale milk to feed him. This was probably the best fate for Colin. I would rather see him peacefully put down than starved to death or eaten because he cannot defend himself.