~ The ´STRESS´ Factor ~ Part 3 ~

Below is accounts (from the WDCS report) of other captive Orcas that have been noted by their bizarre behaviour, thought to be them under stress and displaying aggression on inanimate objects such as the facility set up around them - otherwise potentially thought as being a ‘suicide’ mission.

In the 1970s, a male named Hugo broke an observation window at Miami
Seaquarium, causing significant water loss and slicing off the end of his nose.

In 1985, researcher Jerye Mooney witnessed Corky - then at Marineland in
California - break an observation window. The incident resulted in the loss of
over a third of the water in the pool.

In 1991, Kahana died at Sea World, Texas after colliding with a pool wall. She
suffered multiple skull fractures, cerebral contusions and severe haemorrhaging.

In 1992, a young female named Samoa died at Sea World at the age of only
13. For months prior to her death, horrified onlookers had watched her
performing bizarre, repetitive movements, hurling her body into the air and
crashing down again and again upon the hard surface of a wide shelf at the side
of her pool. Sea World staff claimed never to have witnessed such behaviour.
Was this a deliberate attempt at self-injury? Samoa was pregnant and her near term
foetus died with her.

Keet, the original ´Grandbaby Shamu´ born in February 1993, has been observed
by visitors allegedly slamming his head and body repeatedly into the walls of his
tank at Sea World, Texas. He was taken from his mother, Kalina, at the age of
just one year, 8 months.

During the autumn of 1995, Splash, then six years old, was involved in an
incident at Sea World´s San Diego park. It appears that he was interacting with
another male when he collided with the side of the pool, cutting his chin badly
and requiring stitches.

During 1997, there were even reports that Keiko - the male Icelandic orca
transferred from a sub-standard pool on Mexico to much improved conditions at
Oregon Coast Aquarium, as the first stage in a rehabilitation and potential
release programme - was repeatedly banging his head against the viewing
window of his pool and displaying signs of aggression. The aquarium was forced
to temporarily close the viewing area to visitors, who were charged $8.50 a head
to see the famous ´Free Willy ´orca.

A female caught at Taiji in February 1997 and sent to the Taiji Whale Museum
was observed in May 1997 by orca expert Dr Paul Spong to be making a
"strange twisting movement with her body every minute or two."

The above make’s for rather concerning reading and one has to ask, whether more captive Orca deaths are actually associated with stress and abnormal behaviour/self harming than we are actually led to believe!.

*I will be covering captive Orca attacks on trainers and other people in a separate discussion, coming soon.