L72 Racer and son L105 Fluke (Source)

if i look back, i am lost
$LAYYYTER
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One Nice Bug Per Day
YOU ARE THE REASON

ç„æ„ / Permanent Vacation

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tannertan36

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@orca-spirit
L72 Racer and son L105 Fluke (Source)
Type C killer whales. (x)
Crozet Island Orcas, Kelping (Killer Whales: Wolves of the Sea, BBC)
Orcas chasing herring
via Paul Nicklen PhotographyÂ
Killer Whales Up Close in Alaska (x)
Photograph by @paulnicklen for @sea_legacy
M009/C159 Razor close to the shore of Marion Island in May 2014.
Razor,along with 8 orcas,frequents both the waters of Marion Island and of the Crozet Islands.
Photo by Fred Fourie
Wow, what a great shot!
Orcas in Hamn I Senja, Troms, Norway
Photos by Koen Hoekemeijer
An amazing photo of Split Fin by Dave and Fiona Harvey in Bremer Bay. Split Fin is one of the more well known Australian orca, and aside from this being an awesome shot, whatâs most spectacular about this image is the location - Bremer Bay is on the west coast, and Split Fin has also been photographed on the east coast of Australia. Thatâs a hell of a lot of travel!
The new swim with dolphins pool at Moskvarium.
is it bad that as soon as i saw this i literally almost screamed no.
It literally looks like you just dropped dolphins into a swimming poolâŠ
Wtf do the dolphins actually live there too?
Orca Sunset by Fotolen on flickr.Â
Via Australian Orca Database:
A rare encounter with a pod of 20+ Type C orcas off Eden.
Oh my!
@cetacean-captivity what research are Seaworld going to miss out on???
the whales arenât going to spontaneously combust just bc theyâre not breeding anymore
Takara is still pregnant, and there are a good few animals spread out across all age ranges. No more calves doesnât mean what little structure the pods have is going to fall apart overnight - and actually I think itâll improve this way. Thereâs no longer any incentive to move young animals away from their mothers to make room for more babies, and no more chances of Kohana situations.
And thereâll be no more cases where genetically valuable females are locked in the med pool with multiple males in a desperate attempt to get them pregnant.
The animals arenât going to care either way. No more calves is hardly the most traumatic thing theyâve have had to adapt to.
1. The research surrounding pregnancies, growth, development and viable social populations. All of which are extremely important to understanding the species as a whole. Examples of these kinds of studies include the lactation study which documents pollutant transfers from mother to calf, growth rate studies, the study on normal pregnancy development which resulted in the NOAA drone studies, allomothering studies, ect. Also as someone who studies the development of large ex situ matriarchal and social mammals can I just say that the ability to monitor these animals within a ânaturalisticâ social structure is greatly important to being able to apply your studies to in situ populations.Â
2. No the animals will not spontaneously combust, but the age range will certainly fall out of ânaturalâ organization within 5 years. In order to mimic wild populations, 50% of the animals in captivity should be juveniles and subadults (as they are now). As time goes on, this will become further and further from the case.Â
3. Really the only argument that works here is that there is less pressure for transfers which could also be accomplished by PROVIDING LARGER HABITATS AND ETHICALLY MANAGING POPULATIONS which would allow the animals to stay within natural pod structures and at the same time allow important research to continue.Â
4. As far as I am aware more âKohana situationsâ could be avoided with proper social management. Aka, making sure that experienced mothers are always around newborn calves. Katina, Corky and Kalina were able to âadoptâ Sumar and Tekoa and Kasatka taught Kalia how to raise Amaya. Relying on these types of social relationships could help avoid more Adanâs, but then again, I donât believe Adanâs life is currently worse than never having been born.Â
5. Are you serious? Common I expect better from you, you should know those rumors are ludicrous. The med pools are about 40 feet long, 20 feet wide and 8-12 feet deep, it is impossible for the male to position himself below or to the side of the female in those dimensions. Thatâs why larger âbreeding poolsâ were incorporated into Shamu Stadium designs since the 1980âČs.Â
Not only is it physically impossible for them to breed inside those pools, thereâs no need to âmake desperate attempts to get them pregnant.â If anything itâs the other way around. Orcas are ridiculously sexual animals and more often then not, theyâre mating when theyâre not âsupposedâ to.Â
5. Yeah, the lack of calves might not be the most traumatic thing theyâve had to adapt to in the past, but it will be the most traumatic thing theyâll have to adapt to going forward AND it will surely decrease their welfare in the final decades of their lives.Â
You mean the growth rates that are incomparable to wild orca considering the huge dietary differences between wild and captive groups, the mish-mash social groupings that got Orkidâs mother killed and Tekoa ripped to bits?
Again with the lactation study, what good does it do studying pollutant transfer in animals that are eating a strictly controlled diet? Most of the populations worst affected by pollution do not eat herring. The Southern Residents eat mainly salmon, which concentrate different pollutants in different measures to the herring/smelt/squid diet captives get. Seaworld themselves said that while the study provides a clearer picture of pollutant transfer, it is not applicable to wild whales because of these dietary differences.
And what naturalistic social structure? Katina had almost all of her offspring moved and mated with her own son. All of the captive born Loro Parque animals were moved away from their mothers at ridiculously young ages, which resulted in Kohana never learning how to raise a calf. You canât honestly tell me that having to hand-rear calves due to parental rejection is a sign of a healthy, thriving social structure. Taima and Kayla were both hyper aggressive towards their own calves too, so itâs hardly an isolated incident. Tilikum spends most of his time alone or with Trua, because Katina still attacks him. The only group vaguely resembling a natural pod structure is Kasatkaâs family, and even then theyâre missing the entirety of Takaraâs branch of the family. Splitting up what should be multi-generational families isnât anywhere close to naturalistic for this species.
Funny, the West Coasters havenât had any offspring for decades thanks to all the pollutants theyâve inherited or consumed, yet they havenât fallen apart at the seams. Same with the AT1s. Itâs almost like they donât actually need calves to have a strong, healthy social structure because their societies revolve around survival. Yes, there is an emphasis on raising the next generation, but thatâs true of every single species on earth. We donât consider it cruelty to keep other animals from breeding, especially in zoological facilities with limited room. And again, the current social structures donât mimic their wild counterparts anyway! But unlike the now unavoidable loss of the West Coasters and AT1s is a tragic loss of unique cultures and genetics, the loss of the horrific mess that is the captive orca population at Seaworld is not the end of an era, itâs just the natural progression of ethical aquaria.
I agree with you here. The tanks still need massive expansion. But that expansion isnât going to matter if they keep breeding and filling up the tank with new animals anyway.Â
I think you might have your wires crossed with this one. Tekoa was at LP when Amaya was born. The girls should never have had to adopt Sumar in the first place because Taima should not have been bred at such a young age. On top of that, Taima herself witnessed several normal births between Gudrunâs attempts to kill her other calf and yet still reacted to her own calves with violence. Same with Kayla. As for Adan, perhaps his life is better now, but what about Victoria? Can you honestly say she was better off for being born? Because I sure as hell donât think she was.
Maybe you werenât around at the time, but there was picture evidence taken at SW shortly after Shoukaâs move of her being locked in the med pool with Keet, Ulises and Ikaika. Took me all of five minutes to find it (though I canât find the better quality one, anyone got that anywhere?) Doesnât seem very impossible for them to position themselves to me, especially considering the length of the pool. If they werenât desperate to breed their animals, why did they attempt to AI Orkid so many times in the past despite how much she hated the procedure? Why did they rush into breeding Kalia before sheâd even finished growing, particularly when Shouka herself had settled in by this point and had much more experience with calves? Why was Taima bred so soon after having Malia, a pregnancy which ultimately killed her? Why was Kayla bred again despite the fact that she literally tried to kill her first calf? They were always desperate to keep the baby Shamus rolling in because it made a lot of money. Kalina was treated like a baby mill, she had calves every two years from 1993 to 1999. Considering they have a gestation period of between 15-18 months, thatâs not a lot of rest between offspring.
So having calves removed to be shipped off to other parks even though theyâll likely never see those calves again = a-okay, but simply preventing more pregnancies = terrible horrific trauma? The doublethink is strong with this one. You donât seem to care that there are orca living alone now. IIRC, you were totally fine with Kshamenk and Lolitaâs living conditions, because they had dolphins as companions! But suddenly, the idea of a Seaworld whale living out the final years of their life without another orca is too upsetting and cruel? Youâre honestly not making a lick of sense at this point, but then itâs not surprising.
Youâre not interested in their welfare and you never had been. Anything went so long as there were more whales to gawk at, but now Seaworld have made a responsible choice to limit breeding and instead focuses on rescue and conservation work - you know, things that will actually and actively make a difference - and itâs the end of the world for you. I thought you were one of the more rational and logical procaps on here, Iâm surprised at you.
Meet: The Australian Whales.Â
These orca belong to a pod estimated to contain approximately 20-30 animals that appear off the south west coast of Australia. Little is known about the pod, as their discovery is recent, and it is the first time any stable group of orca have been known to frequent the same area within Australian waters.Â
They have been seen feeding on fish and squid, and appear to return to the same area in the summer for breeding and rearing young. It seems researchers may have stumbled upon the closest thing to a resident pod Australia has ever seen.
They have been documented at times to have the yellowish tinge to their white patches, suggesting they also frequent the waters of Antarctica.
Now that we are aware of the pods existence, it is hoped that we may develop an ID catalogue and begin to properly understand these whales. Footage, including underwater shots and vocalizations can be seen and heard in the new ABC documentary, The Search For The Oceanâs Super Predator.
Killer whale, Coral Bay, Western Australia by LawrieT on Flickr.
SeaWorld PSA
Just because orca breeding is over and orcas in captivity is on a schedule now, that doesnt make SeaWorld okay. They still have dolphin and beluga performances and other cetaceans that need our attention now as well. The orcas still dont have good environments and will still be doing âshowsâ even though they will be more âeducationalâ.
This is a very big victory for the orcas in America, now we need to be sure that this change will continue to progress and benefit the welfare of all cetaceans. The beluga program needs stopped. The bottlenose dolphin program needs stopped. The PSW Dolphin program is basically done, but it isnt officially over yet. The Commersonâs program is over already. There is still work to do and we cant stop advocating for one victory. Empty the tanks is not over. Its just begun.
This! Please do continue to celebrate because this is a MASSIVE MASSIVE MASSIVE victory, but it is not the end of our fight by any means at all!