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Corky 2Corky is easily identified by her straight dorsal fin. She has a nick missing on her left fluke. Her front teeth are all worn down and she is also blind in her left eye. All of those health problems, along with kideny ones, she has had before her arrival to Sea World from Marineland.
Corky's rank is quite low and she is sometimes bullied by other whales.  Orkid usually stops this and protects Corky due to their strong bond.Corky is very friendly and she is the first whale that is introduced to a new comer because of this! 
Her trainers can always count on her. She gives 100% in everything she does. She is a good performer and is always reliable.

Corky was captured on the 11th of December, 1969, in British Columbia, Canada. She was taken away from A5 Pod being only 4-5 years old. She was later sold to MarineLand of the Pacific. She lived there with many orcas but all soon died. Her main companion was Orky II, who was also captured from A5 Pod. He was Corky's cousin.

At the age of 11, Corky was sexually mature...
On 28th of February, 1977, Corky delivered her first calf who was a male. No one knew she was pregnant until a small fluke appeareThis was the first live orca to be conceived and born in captivity. Orky helped Corky and the calf during the labor. The situation grew tense as the calf failed to nurse. The training staff had to drain the pool and force feed the calf several times a day. Despite these efforts, the calf continued to lose weight and eventually died of pneumonia. He lived for 16 days.
Corky became pregnant again soon after. She give birth to another male calf on 31st of October, 1978. Again the calf failed to nurse and the training staff had to force feed the calf. The calf died after 11 days. Pneumonia and Colitis (brought on by a bacterial contamination in the formula) were the cause of death.
On 1st of April, 1980, Corky delivered a eight week premature stillborn calf.
On 18th of June, 1982, Corky give birth to a female calf. It was later named Kiva. She survived the longest out of all of Corky's calves. Kiva, also failed to nurse. After 46 days, Corky and Orky took the calf to the bottom of the tank and drowned her.
To encourage Corky to nurse properly, MarineLand staff make a dummy calf and taught Corky on how she should position herself appropriately. Corky did well in the training sessions but not so well after her babies were born. The reason for this was because of the shape of the pool. For a calf to nurse properly, the mother must swim in a straight line, which was impossible in a tiny circular pool. Corky had two more pregnancies. On  22nd of July, 1985, she give birth to another female who survived for a month. Again the calf failed to nurse.
Corky's last pregnancy ended on 27th of July 1986, when an aborted fetus was found at the bottom of the tank. That means Corky has been pregnant 6 times. She has been almost continuously pregnant for ten years.
In December, 1986, SeaWorld's corporate owner, U.S. publisher Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (SeaWorld is now owned by Anheuser-Busch, the makers of Budweiser Beer), purchased MarineLand of the Pacific and the surrounding lands for a rumoured $23 million. Then in 1987, after more than 17 years at MarineLand, Orky and Corky was removed to SeaWorld California in San Diego. For the first time, the two were with orcas that were not members of the A5 Pod. The facility was much larger, far more busier and had a hectic environment. This was very different to Corky and Orky who had spent most of their lives together in a smaller tank. At SeaWorld, the shows were more complex for Corky and Orky with trainers getting into the water, riding the whales backs and doing other complicated "tricks" or "behaviours".
At SeaWorld, she had her 7th and final calf on August 1998. She had a miscarriage. She stopped ovulating at the age of 21.
On the 26th of September, 1988, Orky died. He father two calves at SWC who are still alive today. His first calf Orkid, was born 3 days after he died.
In August of 1989, an accident happened between Corky and another whale Kandu V (Orkid's mother). There was a lot of tenstion between Corky and Kandu. Then in August, just as the show was starting, Kandu rushed from the back pool and rammed into Corky. Kandu fractured her jaw, a bone fragment severed an artery, and she bled to death. There was no reports of an orca attack in captivity or the wild. This was the first orca to orca attack to ever happen. Orkid was just one year old. Corky then became Orkid's surrogate mother.

- Corky lives at SWC along with 9 other orcas.
-She has spent the longest time in captivity, 33 years.
- She is the second oldest orca in captivity.
- She spends most of her time with Sumar whom she is very close to


KasatkaKasatka is a mature Icelandic female orca. She has a little "nick" missing from her dorsal and her right fluke has a larger piece missing. Her right eye patch is very different to other orca's patches as it is very cloudy and doesn't have a sharp beginning at all. It's more of a circle. Her left eye patch has a small black dot near the back. She also has some teeth missing.

Her name means "killer whale" and "darling" in Russian and that is exactly what she is. Kasatka is the dominant female at SWC. She makes sure that the other whales are aware of that and she causes most of the rake marks on other orcas' bodies. The only whale she doesn't really bother is Orkid, probably because Orkid herself is quite dominant which is down to the fact that her mother was the dominant whale before she passed away.
Kasatka is very protective of her daughter Takara and son Nakai. She is quite moody at times but she is also a very intelligent whale. Kasatka seems to enjoy bird hunting which other orcas at SWC have copied the behaviour.

Kasatka was captured in Iceland in October of 1978 along with two other whales. From there, she was sold to SeaWorld California. Later, she was transferrd to SeaWorld Ohio, SeaWorld Florida and SeaWorld Texas.
In January 1990, she became pregnant at SWT by Kotar. She was shortly transferred to SWC.
On July 9th of 1991, Kasatka gave birth to a baby girl. The calf was later named Takara.
In July of 1999, there was an incident where Kasatka pulled one of her trainers into the water and got a bit aggressive. This happened probably because she was separated from her daughter, something that she wasn't used to before.
Kasatka became the first successful mother to give birth to a calf by artificial insemination.

- Kasatka is estimated to be 24 years old.
- The trainers are now back in the water with Kasatka.
- Kasatka was the first orca to be successfully artificial inseminated using Tilikum's sperm. The two orcas have never met.
- Kasatka gave birth to a male calf on 1st of September who was later named Nakai.
- She is also a grandmother as her daughter Takara give birth to a girl named Kohana. Takara was also artificial inseminated


Ulises
Ulises is a large Icelandic, mature male orca. He is very easily recognizable by being the largest orca at SWC and having the tallest dorsal which unlike most  orcas in captivity stands straight up except from a curved top which leans to the right. He also have very big pecks and his tail is "curved". Ulises has one blue eye, the right one  while his  left eye  is brown. He has few black dots on his chin and a little "bump" caused by injury.

Ulises is alos known as Ulysses. He is even though massive, very gentle and sweet whale. The tariners sometimes refere to him as a "sweet heart". He likes Orkid very much but she doesnt really "notices" him. Sometimes however they spend a great deal of time together vocalazing and playing. His rank is very low and he is quiet often "raked" by Kasatka and other whales. Most of his free time he just like Corky spends swiming up-side down which *might* explain his half straight dorsal.

Ulises was captured from Iceland in November of 1980 along with 3 other orcas, him and Bjossa being the only surviors from that capture..

He was sent to Rioleon, Spain but was then sold to Barcelona, Spain where he spend the next few years in companion of bottlenose dolphins. He soon out-grew his tank and was on February 1st of 1994 transferred to Sea World of California on a breeding loan. While in Barcelona he was depressed and often bullied by his dolphin companion.

Ulises unfortunately even though he has bred with few femels at SWC has not impregnated any of them. It is thought that he has a low sperm count.

In 2001 Bjossa was moved from Vancouver Aquarium, and it was the 1st time in years since the capture that Ulises and her were together. Apparently they did not get along as much as everyone thought they would have. Ulises even raked her a few times.

- Ulises now lives at SWC along with 9 other whales; 5 females: Corky, Orkid, Kasatka, Takara, Makea  and 4 males: Splash, Keet, Sumar & Nakai.
 


OrkidOrkid is captive-born female, she is easily recognisable because of her completely tall, completely  straight dorsal fin, which when she surfaces or swims  very fast  wobbles from side to side.She is the 3rd largest whale at SWC. Ulises the bull being the largest and Corky an erdaly female bing the 2nd largest. Orkid has bluie-grenish

Orkid even though young, is quet dominant whale, not even Kasatka the dominant female of SWC messes with her. Orkid is very curious and sometimes does things on purpose just to see what the reaction of people and her trainers would be.

She apears to enjoy "going bird hunting", however she does it a bit differently to most orcas. She is an incredebly intelligent whale and has been observed many times, freeding the birds before trying to catch them. Sometimes though she doesnt bother so she just leaps out and does her best to get one. She succedess quiet often.

No Orca messes with Orkid unles thier name is Keto. For some reason while Keto was staying at SWC in 1999 Orkid would let him "terorize" her,  she even let him rake up her dorsal which he did quiet badly. Why? No one knows.

Orkid is very protective of Corky, which is like a mother to her, and will defend her from Kasatka. She gets along with most whales but for some reason doesnt really like Bjossa.

Orkid was born on September the 23rd in 1988 to dominant female Kandu V and massive father Orky 2. Orky 2 was probably the largest orca to be ever held captive and is the only male to reach the average life span of an wild orca in captivity. 

She become the 2nd  Orca to be succesfully born in captivty. In the wild she would have never been born since her mother was an Icelandic Orca and father her was from British Columbia, therefore in the wild they would never meet.

Three days later after her birth, on the 26th of September 1988, her dad Orky 2 passed away after loosing an incredible amount of weight. At that point Orkid was still "name-less" and it was then that in memory of Orky 2 she was named Orkid.

On the 21st of August 1989 Orkid's mom, Kandu V lost her life. The accident took place during the afternoon show. Kandu V in full speed swam towards Corky and rammed her with mouth open. She fractured her jaw, bleed for 45 minutes and died. Orkid was only 11 months old and was there during the whole thing.

On suprise to everyone, Corky the female her mother disliked and picked on so much started looking after Orkid, and become her "step" mom. 


- Orkid lives at SWC, where she has lived all her life
-She lives there along with 8 other whales, 4 females; Corky, Bjossa, Kasatka & Takara (two of which are expecting calves) and 4 males; Ulises, Splash, Keet and Summar
-She has a half-sister named Kayla who lives at SWT. The two have never meet and "share" the same father, Orky 2


TakaraTakara is a captive born female killer whale. She has a brown stain going down her chin, it is known as "Takara's T Stain" She has a nick  half way down the trailing edge on her dorsal fine. Takara also has a black dot on her left eye patch at the top corner.

Her name in Japanese means "treasure". Takara is very intelligent young whale. She knows that her mother is the dominant female and will do anything to protect her, because of that she sometimes picks on other whales since they will allow it since her mom is the dominant animal.

At times, she can be a brat. She knows that she can pick on the other whales freely without consequence. Corky seems to be a favourite target and Takara will continually annoy the older female by disrupting her laps or waking her from naps.

She is slowly becoming an adult yet she still loves to play very often and is very "childlish". Takara is very sweet with her trainers and participates in the shows quiet nicely.

Takara was born on  July 9th, 1991 at SWC, where she still lives. She was born to Icelandic parents, mother Kasatka and now deceased Kotar.  She never meet her father Kotar since he lived at SWT until his death on April 1st 1995.

All her life Takara has stayed at SWC.

On 8th of March, Sumar, Keet and Keto; 3 male killer whale arrived at SWC. She enjoyed playing with the youngest one, Sumar. And liked chasing with Keet and Keto her half brothers.

Three whales were on April 15th transferred to SWO only for Keet and Sumar to return in February of 2001 after SWO is sold to Six Flags Marineland. Keto went to SWT.

In April of 2001, SWC Orcas were joined by Icelandic female Bjossa. Saddly she passed away only few months after her arrival, on 9th of October 2001.

- Takara's mother, Kasatka gave birth to a male calf on the 1st of September 2001; she become the 1st orca to be successfully artificualy instamened; the father of the baby is Tillikum. Takara played the "aunty" during the birth. She is now often seen with Kasatka and her baby brother.

-Takara gave birth to a healthy baby girl in May 2002!


SplashSplash is a captive born nearly, mature male Orca. He is more scared up than any other whale at SWC. He also has many rake marks on his body. The one which is most noticable is the one on his right eye-patch. He has lost quiet a few teeth in an accident and his jaw doesnt close properly so he is easibly recognisable. His stitched up chin stands out very much. His dorsal is starting to slowly lean to his left and his pecks are starting to grow more noticably as he is maturing.

Splash is very gentle with his trainers, however he likes to play rough with Orcas. Sometimes some of them pick on him but he always asks for it and even when they do he doesn't stop. Him and Sumar are kept seperated most of the time just because of that, since Sumar is a lot younger and smaller.

Splash was born on August 15th, 1989, at Marineland Ontario, Canada to mother Nootka V and father Kandu. He was born few months prematurely. He was 1st calf to successfully be born at that facility. He was originaly named Katak.

Being roughly 2 and a half years old Katak was sold and moved to SWC in  April of 1992, where he was re-named, Splash. He was there look after by an adult female Corky.

On July 10 th of 1995,  Splash ripped a gash from his chin to his lip exposing a six-inch strip of tissue and bone. He had run into the gate and caught his flesh on one of the hinges. Before the accident, he has been seen swimming very high speed along with Orkid. Once he hit the gate, he sunk to the bottom and Orkid and Kasatka came by for support. They were helping him stay at the surface. He was moved straight away to the medical pool where the vets stitched up his wound. He now makes a "wizzing" sound when inhaling.

Splash has many sibilings, both full blood and half, which he has never meet. They are all at Marineland Canada along with his parents. He also has a few which are now deceased.

- Splash lives at SWC along with 9 other whales; males: Ulises, Keet, Sumar and Nakai  and  females; Corky, Kasatka, Orkid, Takara and her calf Kohana


SumarSumar is a captive born male killer whale. He is the 3rd smalles whale at SWC. His dorsal fin leans to the left which is unusual at such as young age.

His name means "summer" in Icelandic. Sumar is a very playful whale, he appears to love sliding out and does it sometimes during "his own" play. Even though he is quite  young, he still  likes to play rough.

Sumar was born May 14th, 1998, at Sea World of Orlando to captive born female Taima and Icelandic male Tillikum. He was born into quite a large family since his father is SW's main breeder. .

In August of 1998 Taima started exhibiting some aggression towards little Sumar. Things get worse as the days wen by...

In November of 1998 Taima actively pursued her calf and aggressively tried to get him out of the pool. During one of the shows, she swam under Sumar and swatted the calf with her tail and tossed him out of the water onto the trainer platform. Taima then slid out herself and pinned Sumar against the wall and began biting him. Guests were evacuated from the show area while trainers pulled the mother into the back pool by a harness. Sometime afterward, mother and calf were permanently separated into different pools due to poor parenting. Why did Taima act like this?   No one knows. It is possible that she was too young to be a mother and that she learnt to behave like that from her mother Gudrun who was very aggressive towards her ill calf Nyar.

Only 4 months after the incident, on 8th of March, 1998, Sumar was transferred to San Diego along with a male calf Keto.

Once arrived, Sumar was took under Corky's wing. He was and still often seen swimming with her in mother-calf position. Sumar setteled very well at SWC.

However he was moved to SWO on 15th of April along with Keto and Keet. There they stayed until SWO was sold to Six Flags Marineland. Him and Keet were sent to SWC while Keto went to SWT.

Sumar arrived at SWC on the 18th of February around 9:30 pm after a 10 hour long flight from SWO.

- Sumar has a full blooded brother Tekoa born on the 8th of November 2000, he has many half brothers (All cared by Tilikum)Kayuquet, Taku, Unna, Tuar,  Nakai and Kohana.
- Sumar spends the majority of the time with Corky.
- He has also started to develop waterworks with trainers


Keet
Keet is a captive born male Orca whose dorsal leans to the right. Him and his brother Keto look alike even though their dorsals lean to opposite sides and are easily "mistaken" for each other. He has blue eyes.

Keet's right eye patch is similar to Ulises'. It has a "c" shape corner.

Keet is very gentle but sometimes likes to play rough. Compared to his brother Keto, he is an angel. While he lived In Ohio, he was the star of the Shamu Show. Most of the water work behaviours he has learnt there.
He is very close to Sumar.

Keet made history by becoming the 2nd generation of Orcas to be successfully born in captivity. He was born to captive born mother Kalina and Icelandic father Kotar on the 2nd of February 1993 at SWT.

When Kalina gave birth to him she was a baby her-self. She was only 6 years old when she got pragnant therefore Keet was born very tiny. She was born to Katina and Winston on 26th of September 1986.

He was separated from his mother being only a year and 8 months old. She was sent to SWF where she would later give birth. He did not take the separation well but after a while got used to it. At the beggining he was rather depressed. On the 17th of June 1995 his mother gave birth to a baby boy. The calf was named Keto and he was born to the same parents as Keet.

Keet lived all his life at SWT until his move to SWC on 7th of November of 1999 in order to meet his future tank mates. His brother Keto and a younger male named Sumar who arrived at SWC in March of the same year. The brothers met for the 1st time.

There Keet also met his half-sister Takara. They had the same father.

When he arrived at SWC, Corky was introduced to him 1st. She spend a great deal of time getting him to calm down and feel comfortable. She spent a lot of time "talking" to him and was very gentle with him.

On April 15th Keet, Keto and Sumar were transferred from SWC to SWO where the new tank was finished. Only after one season, SWO was sold to Six Flags on January 2001.. That means that the whales were moving once again.

- Keet now lives with 9 other killer whales; 5 females, Corky, Kasatka, Orkid and Takara and Kohana. Also 4 males; Ulises, Splash, Sumar & Nakai.
-Keet has a half brother name Tuar living at SWF with his mom.


Nakai is the first calf to be successfully born from artificial insemination. His parents, Kasatka (SWC) and Tilikum (SWF), have never met. He is the second smallest orca at SWC. He weighs about 1000 pounds.

Nakai is very playful and loves the attention. He also interacts a lot with people in the close-up area. He is very independant and loves to go off on his own to explore.

He was born to Kasatka at SWC on the 1st of September, 2001. This is the first birth at SWC in 10 years.
Nakai has many siblings, Takara, Kayuquet, Taku, Unna, Sumar, Tuar, Tekoa and Kohana. He also has siblings that are deceased.

- Nakai lives at SWC with mom Kasatka, sister Takara and Takara's calf Kohana, along with Corky, Orkid, Ulises, Splash, Keet and Sumar.
- He performs with mom Kasatka most of the time as the part as Baby Shamu



Kohana is the second calf to be born successfully from artificial insemination. Her mother is Takara (SWC) and her father is Tilikum (SWF). Her parents have never met. She is the smallest orca at SWC.

She appears to be very shy. She swims underneath Takara most of the time and doesn't interact much with people. She is playful with Nakai and Sumar.

Kohana is also the first Grand Baby Shamu to be born at SWC. She is the second orca to be born by artificial insemination, with Nakai being the first.

-She lives at SWC with mom Takara, Kasatka, Corky, Orkid, Ulises, Splash, Keet, Sumar and Nakai.

 
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