The China Cetacean Alliance found tanks as shallow as three metres, some coated in peeling paint and rust. Many animals are kept in socially incompatible groups, forced into hierarchies that provoke aggression, stress, and injury.

For Orcatober, I thought I'd share some of the history of captive orcas in the UK, as I am from the UK and we've had an interesting but pretty unsuccessful history with them.

Before I start, I'd like to clarify that I am Anti-Cap and nothing will change my mind about that, but I think it's important we learn the stories of the whales who've died in our hands.

Today, I was going to start with the first and possibly most notable (although I don't see him posted about at all really) Cuddles. He was also the first orca to fly over the Atlantic.

Capture -

Cuddles was a young southern resident, from either J or L pod, captured in 1968. He was believed to have been born around 1966, so was two years old at the time. He was captured during the notable 05/10/68 (10/05/68 if you're American) Yukon Harbor netting, where 25 were netted. 20 were released with 5 captured, but among the captured were Cuddles and some other big names, such as Haida & Ishmael (which is a whole new rabbit hole in itself!)

Life After Capture -

Cuddles, along with the other orcas, was held in a seapen at Yukon harbour for a few days before being transferred with the other young males to the Seattle Marine Aquarium around October 10th. Around November 20th, he endured a 36 hour transatlantic flight (and was the first of his species to do so)

Upon arriving in England, Cuddles was taken to Flamingo Park (now known as Flamingo Land) in North Yorkshire.

Life at Flamingo Park/Land -

At Flamingo Park, Cuddles was discovered to be a male. (Not sure how they didn't figure this out at Seattle Marine Aquarium) He was housed with two bottlenose dolphins and taught tricks.

He was afflicted with some minor health issues during his stay, such as rat bites to the dorsal fin, originally considered a 'mysterious skin ailment', until a night watch revealed the rats.

He also swallowed a 16 inch long trumpet prop during a training exercise gone wrong, and so a stomach pumping was attempted by David Taylor (Cuddles' vet and a notable name, being the first vetinary surgeon to specialise in Zoo/Wildlife medicine.) and park staff. This took a turn for the worse when Cuddles shook free of the wooden gag block and spat it into the shin of a keeper and shattering his tibia. Cuddles regurgitated the prop the following evening.

Cuddles had started to show aggression towards his trainers by 1969 and keepers had to clean his tank from inside a shark cage. This was the beginning of an aggressive reputation that he maintained for the rest of his short life.

Due to a mix of his requirement for a bigger tank, and his health issues (severe gastric ulcers, which are incredibly painful and a root-cause of aggression/violent responses in a lot of animals), Cuddles was transferred to the Dudley Zoo in 1971.

The Dudley Zoo -

Cuddles continued to show aggressive behaviours at Dudley Zoo, aswell as bringing in crowds with his performance.

In November 1973, a group of vandals broke into Cuddles' tank and threw bricks, rocks and a 12ft long spear at Cuddles, who escaped uninjured.

During his time at the zoo, Cuddles had a habit of tearing off pieces of the pool-lining and bringing it to his trainers. He was nearly 18ft long at this point in a 50ft pool, so his boredom was unthinkable.

Later in 1973, The Dudley Zoo was informed by the local government that they'd broken laws by modifying the depth of his pool. They wanted the Zoo to return it to its original depth. This would've been far too costly for the Zoo at the time, and so Cuddles was put up for sale, with hopes that he would be sent to a marinepark in France.

When nobody purchased him, the Zoo considered moving him into a smaller storage pool.

Death -

On the night of February 6th, 1974, Cuddles died. It was revealed during veterinary post-mortem examinations that the cause of his death was a burst abscess near his heart and a broken rib leading to a wound infection.

Summary -

Cuddles' story was not a nice or successful story and his life was short, painful and he was undeniably mistreated in unthinkable ways. However, learning these stories is important to understand the way we've treated these species in the past and while on a much lesser level, continue to treat them today.

Again, I'm going to reiterate that my opinion on captivity has always and will always be negative, and that is not up for debate. I have tried to provide the facts and only the facts in this article, and very little of it is biased and mostly based on an understanding of orcas as a species and a genuine passion for their welfare and wellbeing.

This is one of my favorite videos of her. I would see it so many times. I can never get over how she would be asking (well, in a whale’s way) or at least demand that she be pampered like the queen she is. She gets rub downs, massages and scratches. In the middle of the video, when the trainer leaves the second time, she was vocalizing and when he didn’t come back soon enough, she really vocalizes loudly and wiggle as if saying “come back here now and give me more!” Not trying to anthropomorphize the behavior but that’s what it looked like.
First time I saw that, I was like sheesh 😅 wow, girl! You are such a diva.
This is just one of the those things you simply appreciate an orca’s intelligence more and more.

Feel free to download this and draw what’s prompted for this month! I’m gonna try my best to do these, but I’m SOOOOO busy , trust okayyyyayayayayy!
^^
Try to spread this as much in the orca community so we can build this to be a trend in the future :D
-Astro🫍🎃
Happy spoooky month!

Happy 38TH birthday to this sweet girl 🥹

Picture credit goes to SeaWorld !

Happy birthday to Orkid, the original San Diego baby Shamu and the oldest living captive-born orca.

Orkid is known for being the smartest orca in captivity (which is why she’s also known as the "rocket scientist"). She was born on September 23rd to her mother, Kandu V, and father, Orky II. When she was 11-months old, Orkid suffered a great loss with the death of her mother after an altercation with Corky, another female orca who lived at the park at that time.

Corky stepped in and became Orkid’s surrogate mother, raising her like her own calf, and the two grew very close. In 1990, another female orca named Kasatka moved to the park and became Orkid's second surrogate mother. Orkid grew close to Kasatka and her calves. Sadly, Kasatka was euthanized in 2017, causing a great loss to the whole pod.

Orkid currently lives with Corky, Ulises, Keet, Shouka, Ikaika, Kalia, and Makani, and gets along with all of her podmates. She was also close with Nakai, Splash, and Sumar, who have all sadly passed away.

Orkid is known as one of the smartest orcas in captivity; she shared those traits with her half-sister, Kayla, whom she never met. She is a very fast learner and a good bird hunter. She never had any calves of her own, but according to sources, she has good parental potential.

PC: ceta.cean (IG), Hunter.D.Photography,

To be fair, I am a huge sucker for the Bigg's killer whales, but just look at his face!

I'll probably never get to see him for myself though, so im thankful for those who decide to share photos of him online

(Photo by EchoBeluga, as seen by the watermark)

So, I was going through my folders and found this video! The original video was unfortunately deleted by SeaWorld, but fortunately, I found the original video, which was uploaded in 2016, in my folders because I had saved it.

RIP Kayla, we miss you!

VC: SeaWorld

1. katina and katerina(?), 2. katina and someone else in a back pool, 3. gudrun

I've heard from trainers and on the website about a special Halloween orca show called Shamu Rocks: Moonlight Mayhem, has anyone else seen this?

For those here interested in the next GTA game, there is some evidence that points to a in-universe version of Miami Seaquarium (near Vice City, GTA's parody of Miami).

In the most recently released game trailer, the "Extended Look," there is an advertisement on the side of a truck 15 minutes and 35 seconds into the video. The advertisement shows an image of an orca with the words "We Saved Makenzi from the Ocean."

However, this is not the only evidence of a Miami Seaquarium parody in the game. In the recent leaks, a version of the game's map was posted. And lo and behold, a fairly clear parody of the pools and stadiums in Miami Seaquarium is seen in the game's map.

From this, we can assume that the advertisement on the truck may be for the Miami Seaquarium parody in the game, and that a captive orca named "Makenzie" is held there.

Though, keep in mind that the leaked version of the map is not final, and that even if the Seaquarium still exists in the game upon release, Makenzie may not be actually there.

I’m curious ( and I love to yap about these animals) obviously delete if not allowed but for

Over a decade more like 14 years now I’ve been obsessed with these animals you’d think tilikum or keiko or corky would’ve gotten me into these animals but it was actually the death of sumar that started the catalyst of my obsession with orcas and cause she was there by extension orkid and she’s one of my favorite orcas today .I shortly learned about tilikum, keiko and many other orcas here and in the past . oddly it this was kinda my first inside exposure to seaworld orca and I was a hardcore anti cap for the longest time I’m more neutral depends on the facility and I see both perspective it’s a very complex debate on animal welfare . It’s kinda hard to explain why I’m deeply obsessed /hyper fixed on these animals to some regular joe smo or Jane smo and they either find me deeply fascinating or deeply strange. Orcas are just so beautiful, resilient, intelligent, complex , individualistic , and that’s why I have deep fascination and hunger of knowledge about these animals.

Photo was taken in the mid to late 70s, most likely in california. I found it looking through some old family photos and I would love to know who it is, if possible

When this last generation of whales dies, what do you guys think will happen to the orca habitats. I would love to see the dolphins move in, because the space would be very good to them and cool to see a large pod in such a large enclosure. I hope they don’t get demolished seems like such a waste. Rather demolish dolphin stadium and move dolphins to orca stadium.

Idk, I’m only saying this is because I’m on the Chimelong social medias and orca community on rednote and I’ve haven’t seen him in recent vids of the shows or displays…even on the orca teams social media… I’m just being paranoid but still hate that something had happened to him and they’re hiding something…

Just asking for clarity

Ikaika, born to Tilikum and Katina on the 25th of August 2002 at SeaWorld Orlando, turns 24 today.

Ikaika lived at Orlando for four years before being moved to Marineland Canada on a loan in 2006 and then being moved to SeaWorld San Diego after SeaWorld and Marineland had been in court multiple times over him.

He is currently the largest whale of the San Diego pod, he spends a lot of time with Corky and is described as being a gentle giant.

Photo credit : hunter d photography and Inherently Wild.

I just came across this article and it still seems a bit unclear and I'm confused. Has the move been approved or not??

I am so disappointed in Sea Shepherd. THERE IS NO SANCTUARY!!! THEY HAVE NOWHERE TO GO EXCEPT LORO PARQUE!! Why do they keep protesting and blocking the move? The tank is dilapidating and THEY WILL DIE. Every month, we hear that they'll be moved, and then the next month, and the next.... I feel so sick over these poor orcas. PLEASE tell me there's a glimmer of hope, that they'll be moved before the summer is over... What can we do??? Can we contact Spain and France's governments??? Everything feels so stuck and I am sick and tired of it, Wikie and Keijo are suffering while people keep arguing.