#kyuquot

[blackandwhiteproductions]

SeaWorld Orca profile Kyuquot

[ceramicdolphin]

from my aunt’s trip to swsa!!! i’m super jealous 🫶

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Chasse au couguar sur l’ile de Vancouver,” Le Petit Journal. November 13, 1932. Page 19.  ——— VANCOUVER, 12. — Un fusil de calibre 22 suffit à M. Conred Mayer, qui habite Kyuquot sur la côte occidentale de l'ile de Vancouver, pour tuer les cougars. Ces animaux redoutables sont abondants en cette région, et M. Maver à un beau tableau de chasse. Il chasse la nuit, son fusil d’une main. et un projecteur électrique de l'autre.

Dernièrement, il a perdu son chien qu'un couguar étrangla. M Mayer accourut. Le couguar se retourna alors vers lui, et s'aplatit sur le sol, montrant ses crocs, et s’apprétant à bondir. Le chasseur ne lui en laïssa pas le temps. Avant qu'il se défendit comme un ressort, le carnassier recevait en plein visage la décharge du calibre 22. C'était la plus forte bête que M. Conrad Mayer ait encore tuée cette saison.

[littlewalken]

This is wild J27 Blackberry who discovered that if you show off the creatures in the boats will make high pitched squeaking noises he can hear some of.

This is zoo born Kyuquot who doesn't understand physics (only Orkid and eventually Makani do) so he doesn't know nearly 10,000 pounds of mass shouldn't be able to do this but the bumblebee does front flips anyway.

[the-floof-king]

Random fact tidbit about me: All my wolves in WolfQuest are named after orcas at SeaWorld.

[whaleexpertsanonymous]

Whale actually, average life expectancy for wild orcas is about 30 years for males and 50 years for females. No orca has ever been documented making it to 100. You can thank Blackfish for spreading that around.

Corky (59), Katina (48), Ulises (47), Stella (37), Orkid (35), Takara (32), Kyuquot (32), Shouka (31), and Keet (31) would like to have a word with you about how using data from the entire 60 years there have been orcas in captivity to make claims about how long they live in modern day facilities is problematic to say the least.

[orcinus-veterinarius]

i actually used to be a very "WATCH BLACKFISH!1!111" "eMpTy tHe tAnkS" seaworld = bad sort of person. It wasn't until I actually started listening to people who considered themselves "pro-seaworld" or "pro-animal welfare" until I really realized something.

People base their hatred against seaworld against exaggerated or straight up false information. Sources like PETA/SeaWorldofHurt or the dolphin project are the most common ones that I've seen. PETA in itself is obviously not a good source whatsoever (the claim that Corky killed Amaya still astounds me) and I lost all respect for The Dolphin Project when they criticized Winter's trainers after her passing and suggested that they were immoral for rescuing her and letting her have a permanent home with her caretakers instead of just... letting her die.

No, SeaWorld's orcas aren't forced to perform. I visited SWSA this summer and Tuar just straight up decided to not do the splash segment. Kyuquot soloed the entire segment and Tuar still got his fish. Simple as that. Dorsal collapse isn't caused by depression, there are perfectly healthy killer whales in the wild with collapsed dorsal fins. A lot of the claims like "they separate orca mothers and calves!!11" are outdated too. The last mother/calf separation that was not for medical reasons was Takara and Trua in 2009.

Is SeaWorld a perfect angel? No, of course not. There are plenty of valid criticisms against SeaWorld such as their cancellation of The Blue World Project or investing more into coasters than renovating their animal exhibits. Just if you're going to argue against SeaWorld, use valid arguments.

Also obviously don't go after the trainers. It's honestly disgusting when I see comments like "I HOPE THE WHALE EATS THE TRAINER". Those trainers know that animal much better than you, Beth.

Support your AZA accredited facilities.

Yes to all of this. The Dolphin Project is every bit as bad as PETA. They're probably worse in some ways... to my knowledge, PETA hasn't illegally released captive dolphins into the open ocean. It's infuriating that their pages are what pops up whenever someone googles any topic related to killer whales or SeaWorld, and it's why I don't trust most people who say "I did my own research." A Google search isn't research.

[devoted1989]

There are still eight killer whales at SeaWorld San Diego: Corky, Ulises, Orkid, Ikaika, Kalia, Keet, Shouka and Makani.

Five killer whales live at SeaWorld Orlando: Makaio, Malia, Trua, Katina, and Nalani.

Five killer whales live at SeaWorld San Antonio: Kyuquot, Takara, Sakari, Tuar, and Kamea.

(Wikipedia)

Alongside nearly two dozen other leading zoos & aquariums, SeaWorld proudly announced recently that SeaWorld Orlando, SeaWorld San Antonio and SeaWorld San Diego are now certified by American Humane.

Image found on Pinterest.

[khal-eventing]

Ky looks so much like Tilikum

[swampgh0stt]

“That which cannot be stopped: Inherited will, a man's dream, and the flow of time. As long as man continues to seek out the answer to freedom, these things shall never be stopped.”

― One Piece (Gol D. Roger)

[confused-biscuit]

ky

wasn’t sure what to do with the background so i just did that </3

[orcinus-ocean]

December 24th

For me as a Swede, today is when we celebrate Christmas, or "Yule", as we consider it. And we say neither Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, but Good Yule! (God Jul)

And as for killer whale history, today is the birth of the holy son... Kyuquot.

He is turning 26 today, the same age as me, and I remember this day! (My earliest memory, yule when I was seven months)

Kyuquot (Ky-YO-cut), or Ky for short, is the firstborn son of Tilikum and Haida 2, and was Tilikum's first calf ever, conceived when Tilly was only just turning ten (if we go by him being born in 1980, which I do).

It is unlikely Tilly and Ky ever spent any time together, though, as just after Ky was born, his mother and the other female, Nootka, forced Tilikum into the module or side pool, and he was confined there.

Only two weeks after Ky's birth, Tilikum was moved to SeaWorld Orlando. Over a year later, little Ky was moved with his mother to SeaWorld San Antonio (while Nootka was sent to Orlando), and he has stayed there ever since.

He got a little sister, fathered by Kotar, in 1994, but the calf died after a month. He lost his mother Haida in 2001, when she was pregnant with his full sibling, after she was one of three females inseminated with Tilikum's sperm. (The fourth row shows Ky and Haida together.)

After the death of Kotar in 1995, Ky has been the oldest male in the San Antonio pod, and has met many of SeaWorld's whales through the years.

Among others, the younger males (several of which are his half-brothers) Keet, Keto, Tekoa, Taku, Tuar, and females like Katerina (7th pic), Winnie, Kayla, Unna, and since 2009, Takara has been the matriarch of the pod, and in 2010, she gave birth to Ky’s half-sister Sakari.

As we all know, in 2017, Kyuquot finally became a father when he sired Takara's fifth calf Kyara, named after her parents. But like his little sister, Kyara died, and was the third and last of SeaWorld's 31 live born calves to die before one year of age.

Never an aggressive whale, but he was involved in two non-aggressive incidents when he got agitated and refused to let the trainer exit the pool (but did not hurt them), so he was taken out of waterwork long before 2010.

Not as impressive as his father's 23 feet and 12000 pounds, Kyuquot measures at a more modest 20 feet and 6100 pounds, slightly smaller than SeaWorld's currently largest whale, Ulises.

He is recognized apart from his brother Tuar by his large (typically Icelandic) eyepatches, and his "S-shaped" dorsal fin.

[the-cetacean]

It’s Playtime at SeaWorld San Antonio (SeaWorld)

[seeking--the--essential]

[a-a-p-t-gifs]

Kyuquot doing a ‘lazy’ vertical spin.

Credit: TessOrca.

[orcinus-veterinarius]

Age at death of SeaWorld's captive orcas: By the decade

Here's a very quick look at the age of death of SeaWorld's killer whales over the past four decades. I chose the 80s to begin because that is when their breeding program began, which they have relied on exclusively to keep their population going since wild captures ended in the 70s. Please note that I'm excluding spontaneous abortions and stillbirths, as failed pregnancies can occur for an astronomical number of reasons and we simply don't know the rate at which they occur in the wild. I am including whales under one year of age on the list below as long as they were born alive, but am leaving them out of the average as is typical in aging studies due to neonates' much higher death rate. All animals included died at one of SeaWorld's three parks, although they did not necessarily spend their entire time in managed care there.

1980-1989

Canuck 2 (M, wild born) - 6 years

Ramu (M, wild born) - 19 years

Baby Shamu 2 (F, captive born) - 12 days

Winston (M, wild born) - 19 years

Kona 2 (F, wild born) - 12 years

Orky 2 (M, wild born) - 26 years

Kandu 5 (F, wild born) - 14 years

1990-1999

Nootka (F, wild born) - 24 years

Kanduke (M, wild born) - approx. 22 years

Kahana (F, wild born) - 13 years

Kenau (F, wild born) - 15 years

Samoa (F, wild born) - 11 years

Nootka 4 (F, wild born) - 15 years

Kotar (M, wild born) - 17 years

Gundrun (F, wild born) - 20 years

Nyar (F, captive born) - 2 years

Katerina (F, captive born) - 10 years

2000-2009

Bjossa (F, wild born) - 24 years

Haida 2 (F, wild born) - 20 years

Winnie (F, wild born) - 25 years

Splash (M, captive born*) - 15 years

Taku (M, captive born) - 14 years

Halyn (F, captive born) - 2 years

*Splash was born at Marineland Canada, not a SeaWorld park

2010-2019

Taima (F, captive born) - 20 years

Sumar (M, captive born) - 12 years

Kalina (F, captive born) - 25 years

Unna (F, captive born) - 18 years

Tilikum (M, wild born) - 35 years

Kyara (F, captive born) - 3 months

Kasatka (F, wild born) - 40 years

Kayla (F, captive born) - 30 years

2020-present

Amaya (F, captive born) - 6 years

Nakai (M, captive born) - 20 years

The average life expectancy of wild orcas is 30 years for males and 50 years for females. It's often stated by activists that SeaWorld's whales usually die when they're under 20, which as you can see above, was undeniably correct. But with each passing year comes great advances in healthcare and husbandry, something that's true of not only orcas but all zoological species. And with that, the life expectancy of orcas in human care has increased, trending toward the expected life span.

1980s

Average age at death, wild born males: 17.5 years

Average age at death, wild born females: 13 years

1990s

Average age at death, wild born males: 19.5 years

Average age at death, wild born females: 16 years

Average age at death, captive born males: No deaths

Average age at death, captive born females: 6 years

2000s

Average age at death, wild born males: No deaths

Average age at death, wild born females: 23 years

Average age at death, captive born males: 14.5 years

Average age at death, captive born females: 2 years (1 death)

2010s

Average age at death, wild born males: 35 years (1 death)

Average age at death, wild born females: 40 years (1 death)

Average age at death, captive born males: 12 years (1 death)

Average age at death, captive born females: 23 years

Are these ages where they should be? No. But you can't deny that it's trending the correct way, particularly over the past 15 or so years. Don’t believe me? SeaWorld currently still owns 18 whales, the oldest of which are:

Ulises, oldest living wild born male: 45 years

Corky 2, oldest living wild born female: 58 years

Kyuquot, oldest living captive born male: 31 years

Orkid, oldest living captive born female: 34 years