Captive Beluga Whales in the U.S. & Canada

At Marineland Canada:
Secord gave birth to a male calf in early August 2019
Rain gave birth on August 11, 2019

 

Two belugas were moved to San Antonio from San Diego to accommodate the move of three pilot whales from Orlando to San Diego. I don’t yet know which two whales moved.

UPDATE: Pearl and Atla moved on September 16 from SeaWorld San Diego to SeaWorld San Antonio. Klondike, Allua, and Ferdinand remain in San Diego.

 

We’ve got confirmation on the five whales from Marineland to move to the US. Mira, Qila, Frankie, Kharabali, and Havana have been listed by the NMFS as probably moving to Mystic Aquarium, with Georgia Aquarium also being mentioned as a potential home. I think Georgia is at capacity right now, so they’ll probably all move to Mystic.

 

According to the permit, Georgia has capacity, although I am not sure I agree with the number stated, that seems like a lot!

From Appendix 13:
Presently, there are five beluga whales (2 adult males ages 9 and 31, and 3 adult females ages 10, 13, and 19) living at Georgia Aquarium; however, the facility is large enough to accommodate 14 beluga whales per USDA 3.104. Two adult male and one adult female harbor seals cohabitate in the exhibit with the beluga whales. The main exhibit pool includes a slide out scale where animals can be trained to voluntarily slide onto a scale for routine body mass assessments. The secondary pool meets Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) standards as a primary enclosure. A medical pool includes a hydraulic‐lift bottom allowing access to the animals within 2 to 5 minutes. An overhead crane rail system will allow any newly acquired animals to be placed in any one of the three pools upon arrival and allows staff to place the animals on closed cell foam on the adjacent deck for veterinary access.

 

My genetics skills at reading the charts are buried deep in the brain! Can anyone help to interpret the chart in the genetic test appendix, as to who is the sire for each?

Permit Application to Import 5 Beluga Whales for Scientific Research (File No. 22629, Mystic Aquarium) | NOAA Fisheries

 

Andre is definitely the sire of Havana, Frankie, and Mira. Kodiak is the sire of Kharabali. The sire of Qila is unclear, but it's Andre, Orion, or Tuktoyaktuk (at least it eliminates Kodiak and Belyi). When I tried comparing the numbers, I THINK (keep in mind I'm VERY rusty on this) that Andre has the highest probability to be Qila's sire, but the difference is not big enough to officially declare him the sire.

EDIT: I also tried to find this form of material for the importations from Canada in 2006 and 2008 with Aurek, Klondike, Maple, and Juno, but had no luck. Does anyone have any suggestions for where I might find genetic tests for them?

EDIT #2: There was a calf born at Marineland Canada recently. The dam and sire are both unknown, as is the calf's gender.

 

Mystic currentled houses two whales and I can't imagine they have the capacity for many more.

New to the thread and not very knowledgeable on Belugas in captivity. How often does the species breed in captivity and when was the last time a US whale was born?

~Thylo

 

I recall from a thread on here that Mystic’s capacity is 11 whales, I haven’t read through the whole permit so I don’t know for sure. I was also under the impression that Mystic has three whales: Juno, Kela, and Natasha. They’ve held even more than 8 when Shedd went through renovations in 2008.

The last calf in the US was Mauyak’s calf, who was born July earlier this year. Most of the breeding age females outside of Shedd have bred at one point or another, so there’s at least one calf a year. I don’t know the success rate off the top of my head.

 

Jelly Bean and Eve gave birth to male calves at Marineland Canada. Eve's calf was born in September, I have no idea when Bean's calf was born.

 

Eleven!? Is this including space in off-exhibit holding pools? I can't imagine 11 whales in the on-show pool. I thought they had three whales, too, but I haven't seen more than two in a long time now. As for Shedd, I thought Mystic held onto their dolphins not Belugas?

Good to year the breeding is so frequent!

~Thylo

 

Yeah the limit includes all beluga pools at Mystic. With Shedd, they sent belugas and dolphins to Mystic, I believe the sea otters went somewhere else but I can't remember where. I agree though, eleven is high. They said 18 for Georgia Aquarium, and I can't imagine that looking much better than Arctic Cove at Marineland Canada.

 

Current Belugas in US:
SWT (5.5)

Crissy F

Martha F

Naluark M

Luna F

Samson M

Kenai M

Innik M

Tyonek M

Atla F

Pearl F


SWF (2.0)

Oliver M

Grayson M


SWC (2.1)

Ferdinand M

Allua F

Klondike M


Mystic (1.2)

Natasha F

Kelalukak F

Juno M


Georgia (2.3)

Imaq M

Whisper F

Maple F

Qinu F

Nunavik M


Shedd (3.5)

Mauyak F

Beethoven M

Naya F

Kayavak F

Aurek M

Bella F

Kimalu F

Mauyak 2019 Calf M (b 07/03/2019)

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I would be curious to know capacity at each of the facilities.
Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma held belugas previously, and could probably easily house them again if the space was needed. I think the main reason they no longer do is that there were not whales available as they tried to put whales in more ideal breeding populations.

 

SeaWorld San Antonio held 16 belugas in 1993, I believe there were also about 9 or 10 Pacific white-sided dolphins in the stadium with them. SeaWorld Orlando has never once held more than four belugas in the old stadium or in Wild Arctic, and when Spooky, Crissy, and Bandit got pregnant, Crissy and the male (Luke) we’re moved to Texas to make room for the incoming calves. SeaWorld San Diego held a lot of belugas before Wild Arctic was built, post-Wild Arctic I think they set the limit at 5. EDIT: Shedd had 9 whales when Qannik was born in 2000, I don’t think they’ve ever topped that.

 

According to Phil Demers (I do not know how reliable he is as a source of information so I wanted to make sure to specify where I saw it), one of the calves at Marineland Canada died. It isn't Eve's calf, as the post was made before he was born. Still no word on the names of the 2018 calves.

 

Mauyak’s calf was named Annik, meaning blizzard. The other option in the poll was Naniitchuk (idk if I spelled that right), meaning brave.

 

Does anyone know when the US gov't is suppose to issue its decision on Mystic's permit to import the 5 belugas from Canada? Has a request been submitted to the Canadian authorities yet?

 

Whisper at Georgia Aquarium is pregnant and expected to deliver a calf in mid-April 2020.

Whoa, Momma! Special Delivery Arriving at Georgia Aquarium

 

Aslan and Ikora have died at Marineland Canada. Frankie and Eos are also rumored to be dead.

 

Frankie was one of the belugas that was to move to Mystic. I wonder how that will impact the permit request.

 

Source?