Captive Orca News

I imagine she's a main attraction at MSQ and she's been kept around for making money. (when Keiko showed up in Norway 10 years ago, MSQ applied for permission to capture him) With that said, you're right that a move to another park could be a risk. She hasn't seen another orca in over 30 years, so there's no telling how she'd react to suddenly being introduced to a big group. If she were to be moved to a drastically different environment, I would imagine the best way to go about that would be a slow transition, which wouldn't really be feasible at a SW facility. Like you, I don't really picture anything happening with Lolita. I'd love it if she could at least get a better tank, but I doubt that's gonna happen.

 

Any information hiow many orcas are currently at the Chimelong Ocean Kingdom in China ? according to ocrahome, there are now four.

Captive Orca Statistic

 

I'm wondering where they got their statistic, because I'm having an extremely difficult time finding confirmation that they have any orcas at all. (this website is also saying they have four orcas. I'm gonna email the person running the page to see where they got that info) Rumors have persisted ever since the place opened, but there's still no official word or confirmed sources. (there have been lots of rumors on the Russian orca) I don't know when we'll know for sure unless they start building a new tank. They've refused to comment on whether or not they plan to get orcas, which just makes people more suspicious.

 

I nearly didn't post this due its potential to set us all off bickering, but apparently john hargrove (of blackfish fame) has been caught on camera using racial slurs. NAACP has taken notice of this and have issued a press release condemning him. This has also damaged attendance at his book signings apparently.

NAACP-CA Statement On Former Whale Trainer John Hargrove's Use Of Racial Slurs - MarketWatch

 

Found this on the internet, don't know where the video was made :
https://www.facebook.com/pehemediaoficial/videos/863180370442724/

 

Yeah, orcas at a few places have been known to do this. I wanna say Marineland Canada and SeaWorld San Diego, but I'm not sure. I tend not to pay much attention to individual captive orcas, so I mix them up a bit.

 

Definitely Sea World San Diego, which is where the video was taken. The whale is named Kalia. Her mother Kasatka has done it for years and her 2 middle calves, Nakai and Kalia, learned by watching her as did an unrelated female named Orkid. I've witnessed this behavior many many times, although I've never seen them be successful. They don't eat the birds, just play with them.

 

I had a friend who was an aquarist at MSQ in the 90s and even back then they had no plans of moving her even to a larger pool. The trainers, probably coached on what to say, would tell people she's been in that pool for so long it would be detrimental to her health to move her to a larger pool. I don't buy it, but..

 

I've heard that the city won't give them the permits to build a bigger tank, I don't know whether or not that's true or just a rumor. Like you, I don't really buy the whole "it will be bad for her" things. From a business standpoint, building a bigger tank wouldn't make much sense. By captive standards, she's very very old. Even if she was in the wild, she's at the average lifespan. Unless MSQ plans on getting more orcas (even if they wanted to do that, it would be super difficult) it doesn't make much sense to build an expensive new tank for a single animal that could easily be dead within the next few years.

 

I think I've heard that Kiska, at MLC, eats the birds that she catches. Do you know if that's true?

 

I know that Orkid has been known to swallow her birds. There is footage of her regurgitating part of one when she had just met Shouka. I don't know if Orkid does this because she thinks of birds as food or because she wants to save it for later.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqjhJNQYv3Y

 

No, I'm sorry I don't know. All of my knowledge is from Sea World California after having been a regular for many years and getting to know the trainers and being an "insider".

 

That's a good question. All of the video I've seen where one of the whales had a bird, they were playing with it. Apparently even during a show Kasatka was successful in getting a bird and was playing with it then.

I read an article recently, I think it was one of the sidebar ones on this page, about zoo animals being on medication and it also referenced Sea World. It mentioned that the whales are constantly regurgitating their food and saw that as a repetitive behavior like polar bears that pace back and forth, and while I don't know about the whales at the other parks, I know the ones in San Diego do it to bait the birds so they can try to catch them.

 

I've seen videos of captive cetaceans regurgitating fish and then swallowing them, and doing that again and again, so I think that's the stereotypy the article was referring to.

 

I have no doubt they do that. I've just never seen it myself other than as an attempt to bait the birds. And let me tell you, it's quite the interesting sound when they start doing it, too. hahahaha.

 

Yes, Kiska at MLC does bait, attack, and eat the birds that she can catch. The other younger whales did it too (and started it), however they are all sadly deceased now, but Kiska does carry on the behaviour.

At San Diego, Kasatka, Nakai, Kalia, and Orkid will all bait and capture birds (if you look around enough you can find various footage and pictures of them hunting, Nakai seems to have a thing for pelicans in particular) Sometimes they eat them, sometimes they don't. Makani, and to a far less extent Ikaika will bird bait as well. I don't see Ikaika doing anything more with it, but I anticipate Makani and Amaya become frequent bird baiter's/catchers too.

At Orlando, Katina, from what I've heard, is the only whale that pays any sort of attention to the birds outside of spraying water at them. I guess she will attack birds on occasion, but it is very rare. If you look at videos of birds that get into the pools, its pretty much just curiosity from the whales, as opposed to the predatory dispatch a bird could expect at San Diego.

At San Antonio, there is so little info about the whales habits out there, but I would not be surprised to hear that Takara and Sakari are bird hunters too.

 

website
animals
show
map


Website for the aquarium that has some of the captured Russian orcas, Narnia, Nord, and Juliet. There aren't many pictures of their actual facilities or the animals, they're using Photoshopped images and direct photos of other places and animals. But there is new information, and something to keep an eye on. Also, the show page seems to be saying that bottlenose dolphins, belugas, and orcas will be used in the same show? I'm using Google Translate so it's possible it's just not translating properly, but the map seems to confirm it.

 

Miami Seaquarium has discontinued waterwork with Lolita due to osha related concerns. Frankly I'm disappointed in this because I understand she enjoys waterwork immensely and has no history of aggression towards her trainers.

Miami Seaquarium trainers won’t perform in water with killer whale | TBO.com and The Tampa Tribune

 

What are the benefits to the whales of being kept in captivity? Are their any minimal dimensions for their pools? Why do people think no orca has reahed its natural life expectancy while in the care of the various Sea Worlds?

 

Life expectancy in the wild is 30-50 years, Lolita is roughly 49, on orcahome I can see 9 orca over 30 currently. Not sure what else you're expecting?