Global Captive Orca Population

The male that was used for the artificial insemination was one of the Chimelong Spaceship whales.

 

No idea. There have been no official announcements about her pregnancy and calf and now that it has sadly passed it’s doubtful we’ll ever find out who the dad was. Maybe a whale at a Chinese facility or maybe they had sperm from a SeaWorld whale from before they ended breeding operations. I do not know if the Loro Parque males are trained for AI.

Edit: looks like someone knew the answer!

 

Unexpected news as Lovey is an experienced mother and KSW have a good track record with calves.

It hasn't been confirmed, but a while ago KSW said they were working with Nagoya and Chimelong in a multi-facility AI exchange program, so it's assumed the father is a Chimelong male.

Years ago, after Oscar died, they tried AI with SeaWorld but it never worked.

 

Very sad news to hear that there has been no calf from Lovey.

They've had great success birth wise with only two unsuccessful calves being born (both to Maggie in the mid 90's).

Considering the gestation was rather long for her I'm wondering if it was a stillborn - which can on occasions take longer to deliver.

 

I read comments from Japanese Youtube stating they saw someone taking notes on the calf's nursing so it may have died after birth but obviously that's not a confirmed source.

 

I thought the calf was early? Orca Wiki says the calf was due in the summer, so she would have only been just over a year into the pregnancy. I think it was early because she went into labour during a show, so it doesn't seem like the trainers were anticipating it.

I could be wrong though, I don't speak Japanese and google translate isn't good with Japanese.

 

I thought she was due a few months back (at least from what I've heard).

They had also stopped shows up until her delivering the calf. They were stopped for a week or so I believe, although I may be wrong.

 

Not sure how accurate this is (translated from French):

Kamogawa SeaWorld - Death of Lovey's Baby

Lovey started weaning Saturday during the show, which was stopped as soon as breeders saw Lovey was in labor.

The little one didn't survive.

To date, no official announcement has been made by the Delphinarium.

Shows resumed March 20 with Lovey, Lara, Ran and Luna.
Rumors began circulating that Lovey was pregnant with her third baby by artificial insemination in early July 2023. The park had confirmed this pregnancy at one of their shows.

Lovey is 26 today. She was born on January 11, 1998 at Kamogawa Sea World (mother Stella - father Bingo, both captured in Iceland in 1987 and 1984 respectively).
Stella's first child, Lovey was the first orca to be successfully born in Japan.

 

Apparently one of the remaining females have been moved from Chimelong's breeding base to the spaceship, this is either 'Nukka' or ''Jade'. This leaves one female and possibly an unknown calf at the breeding base.

 

Revised taxonomy of eastern North Pacific killer whales (Orcinus orca): Bigg’s and resident ecotypes deserve species status | Royal Society Open Science (royalsocietypublishing.org)

An interesting paper!

 

The lineage of all captive bred whales is pretty well known. I don't believe Bigg's have much if any representation in captive populations, but there definitely would be hybrids of O. orca and O. ater if the new taxonomy is accepted.

 

Malia of SeaWorld Orlando and Tekoa of Loro Parque are part Bigg's! Their maternal grandfather -Kanduke- was a Bigg's. They're the only living captive orcas with Bigg's blood.

 

Interesting information. Thanks for letting me know! That means we’d also have O. orca and O. rectipinnus hybrids as well!

 

Indeed he was! Malia and Tekoa are both 25% Bigg's 75% Icelandic.

There were quite a few others in captivity throughout the 70's and 80's; Nootka, a female who was also at ML Canada with Kanduke for a period, was also a Bigg's female and she was transferred alongside him out to Seaworld in 1987 (albeit to San Diego where she died a few years later).

 

Inouk passed away last night at Marineland Antibes from unknown reasons. An autopsy will be carried out in the coming days to find his cause of death. The park has officially announced the loss on their facebook page.
Zoo Marineland

 

: (. Marineland can’t catch a break. I know Inouk experienced a bout of illness after Moana died. Did he ever fully recover from that? Very sad news. Hopefully the necropsy gives some answers. He wasn’t old either at 25.

 

Very, very sad news to hear from Marineland. Wasn't unexpected given he has been battling some health issues following Moana's death, but very sad nonetheless.

He was only 25 and Marineland's had a lot of misfortunate with the losses of Freya and Val back in 2015 and Moana, and now Inouk.

I wonder what they plan to do now with just Wikie and Keijo; the Japanese move doesn't appear to be any closer.

 

Nukka, Loki's mother, has been moved to Chimelong Spaceship from the holding facility and Stella has been transferred out of Port of Nagoya

 

That's very surprising. My money wasn't on her being one of the whales moving. I wonder how she will cope as I assume Kobe will be doing traditional style shows which she hasn't done in well over a decade.

 

It hasn't been stated where exactly (from what I've seen thus far, but almost certainly it is Suma). She'll probably be joined by some of Kamogawa's females soon too.

W can't rule out her being sent back to Kamogawa too, to replace any of their girls being sent to Suma, but it's obviously quite unlikely.

It's really sad to see Japan now having to break up their current pods with the France orcas potentially no longer coming (or at least being delayed). With seven orcas in total, we can probably guarantee two parks will only have two whales each. Quite sad for Lynn especially who I assume will now be spending time with Earth; I wouldn't be surprised if breeding is attempted.