Captive Beluga Whales in the U.S. & Canada

Just my luck, right after I state something, an American aquarium announces some new piece of news on belugas. Literally two days after I published the "updated list," Georgia Aquarium announced that Qinu is pregnant. The sire of the calf is Aurek, meaning this calf is half Canadian and half Russian.

According to Georgia Aquarium, Qinu and Aurek were spending more time together, causing suspicion of Qinu's pregnancy. Sure enough, she was. I've noticed a pattern with many of the belugas, they refuse to mate with whales they grew up near. Notice how Aurek has had access to Maple basically his whole mature life, and he still hasn't tried to get her pregnant. Qinu is the same way, not associating with Beethoven or Grayson in Georgia, but almost the moment Aurek arrives, Qinu is pregnant at the first opportunity. Whisper was the same way, did not associate with anyone but Nanuq and Naluark, since Klondike and Aurek bullied her a lot. It may just be beluga preference in a mate or some weird thing like that, I don't know. I know Nanuq and Naluark have gotten around and sired way too many calves, their genes aren't necessary right now.

If I were SeaWorld, I would bring Beethoven back to meet Whisper, both of them have great genes and they aren't related to each other. I think having the Russian male belugas in three different aquariums is a good idea for genetics. Shedd Aquarium having one of the larger pods of belugas means they're more likely to have births, the thing is that Kayavak doesn't associate with the belugas for some reason, and Mauyak is still really close with Kimalu. I think they should send Klondike there and move Grayson and Oliver into San Diego, considering there's no breeding females there, might as well move the males with crappy genetics into California, like Naluark, Nunavik, Oliver, and Grayson. Maybe Ferdinand could move to Mystic, Shedd, or Georgia, to see if it's even possible he could get a female pregnant.

 

Just leave it to me to stalk North American belugas at this point, SeaWorld literally said this a few hours ago. Whisper gave birth to her calf earlier this week, the calf was unusually week despite a normal pregnancy. It died after refusing to surface a second time. Staff took the calf into the back pool, where it died that day. Whisper is now in the back, recovering from the loss of her third calf. She is supposedly alert to her surroundings according to SeaWorld.

No updates on the pregnancies of Qinu, Isis, Eve, or Jelly Bean are available.

I saw this coming. SeaWorld keeps trying to breed the animals that never successfully have calves and it's just not working. They should probably not have sent Whisper away before she could learn to raise a calf, now she has no females who could teach her, and hasn't since 2010, and Bella was so young and Crissy still kind of failed to raise her to adulthood. This same thing happened with Ringer, and we knew it would happen before we learned about the two failed pregnancies we were never told about before. They should replace Whisper with Luna, she's already spread her genes with Imaq and she has never failed to raise a calf (granted Atla was hand raised).

 

Alright, it's time to set some things straight here.

First off, regarding Aurek not getting maple pregnant. There is an equally large likely hood she may just not be able to be pregnant, although mate selection may have something to do with it. In regards to Qinu and Beethoven, she was only 6 when he was transferred, she likely wasn't even cycling when he was moved. Grayson was only 9 at transfer and is also a half sibling to Qinu, so they would not be bred regardless.

The Russian males were both young when transferred, Klondike was 12 and Aurek was 13, this is just on the cusp of sexual maturity for males, although poor relationships don't help either.

Nanuq and Naluark are/were both still very valuable animals, Nanuq died in 2015 and leaves only 5 living offspring, only one of which is currently reproductive. Naluark only has 3 living offspring, and only 1 is of breeding age currently; the others are still years away. Their offspring are also very important demographically, as there are not many young animals to be future breeders at the moment. Removing them from the breeding population would leave us with exactly 2 animals born within the past 10 years, the two male siblings out of Imaq and Luna.

Moving Beethoven is absolutely stupid right now. He is currently the most genetically valuable male who is actually breeding, and he is in the best location to do so, with proven cows Mauyak and Naya, and possible/future breeders Kayavak (who was hand reared and shows the poor social skills associated with that), Bella, and Kimalu. Mauyaks closeness with her sole living calf has no affect on her ability to get pregnant again shortly, the adults will still breed regardless. Wasting his genetics at a location with only a single cow is a stupid move right now. Having Grayson there is an excellent move, he is unrelated to all the other animals, and as such can step up into the role of breeding male after Beethoven has had his chance to breed, and he will be able to breed with any females at the aquarium.

Moving Klondike is also a poor idea. Ruby and Atla are both 7 years old and will be hitting sexual maturity in the next 1-3 years, and Klondike is the only male who has a chance to get them preggo. Moving Ferdinand is just plain stupid, he is at least 45 years old and within the 20 oldest cetaceans in captivity in the US, moving him is not worth the risk of the stress killing him. Especially to Mystic, where their only cow is an older non breeder (not that Ferdinand is a breeder himself, if he couldn't get the fertile female ruby or the cow he lived with for years in Europe pregnant, I don't see that changing with other cows). Oliver is also in an excellent location, once Imaq has finished breeding at San Antonio Oliver can step up in his place.

Whispers calf's survivability has nothing to do with her mothering skills, it was simply born weak and unable to thrive, simply did not have the strength to make it up to the surface again. Her first was a stillbirth and the second died of pneumonia, something they can be born with. Whisper also lived in the breeding pod at San Antonio for 11 years, and saw no less than 4 calves born to survive for at least a month or two, if not more during her time there, plus her own stillbirth and living calf. Crissy is an excellent mother and raised Bella well, if she had not fallen ill she would likely still be alive. At 3 years old she was no longer reliant on her mother for nutrition anyway.

Qinu and the Marineland females are all still pregnant, nothing to report on them at the moment.

Not related to the belugas, but Ringers inability to have a successful calf is likely not related to her mothering skills, commerson's seem to reply largely on instinct as opposed to learning, instead it is more likely a genetic issue, sadly.

 

SeaWorld has actually managed to get belugas pregnant at oddly young ages in the past. Whisper was 7 years old (maybe not even that) when she gave birth to her calf in 2006 at SeaWorld San Antonio. She gave birth a second time at age 9. It's definitely possible for the belugas to get pregnant at young ages, though I don't think it's a good idea to be breeding them so young.

As for Ringer, I find it odd that it would be a genetic issue, especially considering that Ringer was born to Oreo, a successful mother to five calves (SWC-CC-8827, Fabio, Cookie, Keebler, and Ringer). I know Ringer's second calf was premature, that's probably why it died, and considering she probably wasn't artificially inseminated for her third and fourth pregnancies, the sire is most likely Juan, making the inbred calves less likely to survive. Her first calf is weird, and her last calf could've been sired by any of the males, though I've never actually seen her around Ross, she usually sticks with Pepe, and sometimes Juan.

 

Some news at SeaWorld San Antonio. Crissy gave birth to a calf on September 17, 2017, no confirmation on whether the sire is Imaq or Oliver, but chances are in Imaq's favor. Gender has not yet been determined, but the calf appears to be doing well with Crissy. No update since before the calf would've started nursing.

Qinu, Jelly Bean, Isis, and Eve are still pregnant, there are no updates on their pregnancies, though Qinu is due in September. At Marineland Canada, pregnancies have been covered up in the past within Talia, Osiris, and Gemini, I wouldn't be surprised if they do it again in case one of the belugas' pregnancies fails.

 

Aurek moved from Georgia Aquarium to Shedd this week. Any other beluga moves? Typically several occur at same time in past.

 

Nope, Aurek was the only one. Not sure why, you'd think if he left, Maple would, too for breeding purposes.

 

Housing males presents challenges with neonates. I suspect that could have necessitated a move

 

Are you sure? In 2012, when Maris gave birth, both Beethoven and Grayson were in the pool with the calf from birth, they never had an issue with the calf, granted Grayson was only 5 years old. Then in 2015, Grayson was still in the pool when Maris gave birth again, without any issues. Granted Georgia Aquarium is the only aquarium I've found online that did not separate mother and calf from the other whales at birth, except maybe New York Aquarium (not sure how many beluga pools they had) and Point Defiance Zoo (again, same thing).

 

On September 27, Eve gave birth to a calf at Marineland Canada. The calf is sired by Burnaby, Horus, Orion, or Tuktoyaktuk. No updates on the calf, or on the pregnancies of Isis and Jelly Bean.

 

False. For both her births she was the only animal in the pool, along with a dive team.

You are also wrong again about separations for birthing females. Marineland's females give birth in the maternity pod, and Seaworld San Antonio will have multiple females together for births as well depending on the female.

At Marineland, Eve's calf is fine, and the sire is Tuk. I know the gender of the calf and whats up with Bean and Isis however it is not public knowledge at this point, so I will keep it that way until further notice.

 

Hyak II Thanks for the info, does Georgia Aquarium even have a second pool? I wasn't aware of more than one pool.

 

Georgia Aquarium does have a second off exhibit pool.
Visited today, Qinu is VERY pregnant.
All 3 whales were together in main habitat. Nunavik and Maple were engaging in activity peaking the interest of many kids and causing parents to blush.

 

Qinu gave birth today (November 8, 2017). After a long labor, the calf died and was carefully removed. She is currently recovering at Georgia Aquarium. The sire of the calf was Aurek, she went into labor on November 7, about 20 hours ago. It was about 5 hours ago that the calf was confirmed dead.

 

Something I forgot to mention a while ago, Crissy's calf has been confirmed male. SeaWorld is like 90% sure that Imaq is the sire of the calf. No name has been announced yet.

 

Quite a few updates since Qinu's calf...

A calf named Tyonek was rescued in Alaska by Alaska SeaLife Center, he moved to SeaWorld San Antonio in March. He's already been introduced to Natasha, who will probably be his surrogate, since SeaWorld isn't having as much trouble getting babies out of Martha. Crissy's calf has been named Innik. At this point, Ceta Base has deemed the pregnancies of Isis and Jelly Bean at MLC unsuccessful.

Now for some news on Vancouver Aquarium. The cetacean ban by the Park Board or whatever for Vancouver has been decided by the court as out of their power, which means new cetaceans may return to the parks, and they might go ahead with the old plan for 4 or 5 belugas until 2029. I believe they currently own Qinu, Grayson, Imaq, Allua, and Samson, though it might be Kenai instead of Samson. Qinu is the only viable female of those five, and Imaq and Grayson are currently breeders, so I have no clue who would move. Nothing is confirmed as to their next move following the lift on the cetacean ban.

 

Seems like Shedd has been slow to have another calf. I thought they would have a pregnancy by now. Hoping for AI pregnancy with their lags too.

 

While it is true that they retain ownership of several belugas, I'm incredulous to believe that they have immediate plans to reacquire their possession. I'm fairly certain their former beluga habitat has been entirely renovated to house Steller's sea lions. Have you heard anything on this, other than speculation?

 

I think it was originally the plan to build a new beluga exhibit, but that may no longer be feasible for the timeframe they are allowed to have belugas. But that timeframe may no longer be an obligation with the opinion of the court reversing the park boards rules.

 

Supposedly, Pearl & Atla are pregnant at SeaWorld San Diego. Anyone else have more info?