News 2013

1/26/13-It has been announced by Tim Zimmermann that Takara is pregnant. He wrote about how Takara would be AIed again in Summer of 2012, which he says is when she became pregnant. This would make her due around Fall or Winter of 2013. Zimmermann had said she was pregnant before and this was incorrect, though SeaWorld had been trying to get her pregnant. The father may be Kshamenk. Here is the link

2/7/13-Kasatka on baby watch?

2/14/13-Kasatka gave birth! Here is an article on the birth. Here is a second article.

2/20/13-It's a boy! SeaWorld San Diego has confirmed Kasatka's calf is a male.

4/9/13-Wikie is pregnant!

5/15/13-There is a possibility that one or more orcas may be moving to L'Oceanografic in Spain from Marineland Antibes in France. Here is some information that was translated. It mentions Moana but other sources have stated that he is just one of the possible candidates and it may be a multiple orca transfer. Years ago there was talk of Valentin and Inouk moving to Oceanografic but this didn't happen. It seems that right now Marineland may be trying to get a permit or permission to send an orca(s) there. Currently Oceanografic houses Belugas and Bottlenose Dolphins. Moana's mother, Wikie, is pregnant with her second calf, which may be one of the reasons they are wanting the transfer. The successful birth of her calf would bring the total orcas at Marineland to 6.

The orca Moana, in the center of the image, jump off Wikie mother of 11 years old, during a presentation at the park Marineland in Antibes, southern France. The orca was born by artificial insemination with sperm from the male's Ulysses SeaWorld. PROMAR Association in Defense of Fauna Marina, has been in contact with the President of the Generalitat of Valencia to intervene and prevent the orcas move Oceanographic Valencia. PROMAR having received communication regarding the intentions by bringing Parks Meeting of Oceanographic facilities a young orca from Marineland Antibes facilities, if they win the competition for the Valencia park management.

6/10/13-You can now cast your vote for Kasatka's calf to be named! Follow this link to cast your vote for Hako (meaning chosen son), Valentino (strong), and Makani (the wind). You may need a Facebook account to cast your vote.

6/14/13-Kasatka's calf has a name! He has been named Makani after winning 40% of the votes! Nearly 12,000!

6/16/13-It comes with great sadness to announce the passing of little Victoria. She was born at Loro Parque on August 3, 2012.

6/17/13-Stella's calf has been named Rin! Rin means phosphorus in Japanese.

Edit: Rin is not the calf's name. It is Lynn.

7/3/13-According to a Russian news article, a second orca will be joining Narnia at the new aquarium being built for the two. It is estimated to be done by Spring.

7/16/13-Kamogawa Sea World has announced that Lovey has fallen ill. No information on what is wrong or how bad she is, but all orca shows have been cancelled for the time being.

7/17/13-Takara is confirmed pregnant with her 4th calf!

7/18/13-Good news everyone! Kamogawa announced that Lovey's health is improving! Hopefully she continues down this road.

9/26/13-There are rumors that 3 orcas may have been captured in Russia.

9/27/13-With the rumors that are coming out about the 3 possible orcas who were captured in Russia, more has substantiated. Some are saying that they are being housed with Narnia and were captured in the Sea of Okhotsk, where Narnia was also captured. Eventually, it is thought that 1 will be joining Narnia in the aquarium being built in Moscow. Others are speculating that the other 2 will be transferred to the Primorsky Aquarium. These are all just speculations and rumors so far. Nothing has been confirmed. Russia though, has been issued a permit to capture up to 10 orcas this year. After Narnia's capture, it is thought that more aquariums are interested in having orcas. Although they usually are issued a yearly amount, they have not seemed as interested lately in capturing orcas as they are now.

10/9/13-Of the three orca who were recently captured in Russia, there is an adult male, adult female, and juvenile female.

10/28/13-Russian Orca Forum is reporting that an additional 4 more orcas have been captured in Russia.

Edit: 3 orcas had been captured, rather than 4.

11/11/13-Rumors are going around that Wikie is on baby watch and is expected to be due within the next week. We are unsure as to where these rumors started, but we do know she is due soon. We have also read that Wikie and Takara are both due at the end of November, though we don't know how true this is as Takara is still rather small compared to her past pregnancies. Though, she could just be carrying small as all pregnancies are different.

11/13/13-Marineland Canada is supposedly attempting to obtain orcas from the recent Russian captures. It is unknown of how many they are trying to get. This comes as no surprise as there have been rumors of them wanting more orcas. They have also received many belugas captured from Russian waters, the most recent group being in 2008.

11/19/13-SeaWorld California is on its way to getting the next false rising floor installed. They have been working on the pool for probably a couple of months now. This is the first picture we have seen of the floor though.

11/21/13-Wikie gave birth! Here is a picture of the new baby.

11/27/13-Russian Orca Forum recently posted this. "Two of the captured Russian killer whales are about to be transferred to Sochi Dolphinarium. Reported cargo weight is 33.5 tons (2 orcas in tanks plus water). The transfer was going to happen on Thursday this week but is now postponed."

12/2/13-Narnia and one of the newly captured Russian orcas, a male weighing 3,400 lbs, were transferred to the Moscow Aquarium and Dolfinarium.

12/6/13-Takara has given birth to a female calf! She gave birth at 12:08 am at SeaWorld Texas to her 4th calf!

12/26/13-Here is an interesting article about Kshamenk and his life at Mundo Marino. The information is provided by the Wild Earth Foundation, and because of this, we feel it must be a pretty credible article as they are not necessarily supportive of captivity.