In my previous diary, I went through the paternal line of Keet, the killer whale that first inspired my love of SeaWorld. It was only when I looked him up later online and read about his life and his family history that I realized the true nature of killer whale captivity.
Strap in, folks - it's his maternal family history where things really start to get ugly, and it’s one of the main reasons I do not support these parks.
Mother: Kalina
Born: September 26, 1985
Died: October 4, 2010
Born to the wild-born whales Katina and Winston (Ramu III) in Orlando, Kalina was actually the first killer whale calf to survive in captivity. Several other calves had been either stillborn or died shortly after birth. Kalina's survival is even more impressive considering she came into the world via a breech-birth — whales and dolphins are typically born tail-first.
The birth of Kalina. Her mother, Katina, is assisted by the whale Gudrun toward the end of the video.
When she was four, management decided to tour the first "Baby Shamu" through the other three SeaWorld parks, and she was separated from her mother, Katina. After stops in Aurora and San Diego, Kalina was brought to San Antonio where she became pregnant with Keet. She was only six, less than half the age that most wild killer whales begin to breed.
Kalina was an attentive mother, but became pregnant again within a year of giving birth to her first calf. The decision was made to move her back to Orlando during her pregnancy — without Keet. He had not even turned two, and she never saw her first calf again.
Four years after her initial separation with her own mother, Kalina and Katina were reunited, but the two apparently never regained the closeness they had before the separation (Katina had birthed three other calves by this point). In fact, Kalina's SeaWorld profile indicates there was tension between them as adults, as Kalina would occasionally be physically displaced by her mother.
Kalina gave birth to her second calf, Keto, in 1995, and was again pregnant within a year of his birth with a calf that was ultimately stillborn.
Kalina was involved in an aggressive encounter with another whale, Kayla, that left a gash over her right eye and was so disruptive that the "Believe" show at Shamu Stadium was cancelled. Less than an hour later, the "Dine with Shamu" show ended in tragedy when Tilikum fatally attacked Dawn Brancheau. Killer whales are highly social and matriarchal, and while it is possible that the attack would have occurred anyway, I think it likely that the ongoing aggression between Kalina and Kayla was a contributing factor.
Kalina died of acute bacterial septicemia at the age of 25. The exact cause of the infection was never determined, but Kalina was known for poor dental health — four of her teeth had been extracted and at least five drilled.
Kalina had four calves in total and served as a surrogate parent to the whales Sumar and Tekoa when their mother, Taima, rejected them.
Brother: Keto
Born: June 17, 1995
Keto was covered in my previous diary, as he is a full sibling of Keet.
Half Brother: Tuar
Born: June 22, 1999
Tuar is Kalina's third calf but fourth pregnancy. Sired by Tilikum, he is described as a very playful whale. He was separated from his mother at the age of four and moved to San Antonio, where the social structure became increasingly unstable as the older, dominant females died or were transferred out. According to John Hargove's Beneath the Surface, Tuar and his teenage partner in crime, Kyuquot, began to dominate over the other, younger whales and their trainers. SeaWorld deliberately shipped in the more dominant Takara to discipline them:
First, she took on Tuar. Immediately upon being let into the same pool, she raked him violently, leaving a huge gash across the top of his head. He was devastated and terrified of her. In a later session, when I called the whales over, I asked Tuar to position himself beside her. He did so, but throughout he had his pectoral flippers tucked in defensively, a clear sign of nervousness. He knew who was boss and did not dare touch [Takara] for fear of offending her even more.
His SeaWorld profile documents instances of mouthing trainers and eating at the paint at the bottom of the pool.
Half Sister: Skyla
Born: February 9, 2004
Skyla is Kalina's fourth calf and was separated from her mother at the age of two as part of a breeding loan to Loro Parque in 2006. I discussed this breeding loan in my diary about Keet's paternal relatives, and Skyla's inclusion in such a loan frankly makes little sense— she was both too young to breed and is the half-sibling of both males included in the breeding loan. She has never become pregnant by either of her half-siblings, and the thankfully since the whales are still owned by SeaWorld, the recent end to the breeding program means that such a pregnancy will be prevented.
Skyla was banned from waterwork with all but the most experienced trainers in 2009 after pushing one of them against the side of the tank during a show.
Grandfather: Winston
Captured: August 8, 1970
Died: April 28, 1986
Also known as Ramu III, Winston was one of six Southern Resident killer whales to be taken in the infamous Penn Cove drive in 1970 that also killed at least four animals. A member of L-pod and suspected to be in the matriline of L2 "Grace," Winston's relatives are now specifically protected by the Endangered Species Act in part because of the devastating impact of the removal of their young throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Footage of this event was shown in the film Blackfish, and apparently the Southern Residents have not been seen in Penn Cove since their calves were taken.
The capture of Keet’s Grandfather from L-Pod.
Winston first lived in Windsor Safari Park, where in 1974 he lunged at his trainer in an attempt to pull them into the pool. When it was clear he was outgrowing the tank, he was sold to SeaWorld San Diego.
He died in 1986 of heart failure between 15-20 years of age.
Grandmother: Katina
Captured: October 26, 1978
Former trainer Jeff Ventre described Katina as a "Cadillac Killer Whale." Captured near Iceland, Katina was first bought by Marineland in Niagara Falls, where she lived for less than a year before being acquired by SeaWorld. At first she was kept in the petting pools because of her small size, but eventually Katina became one of SeaWorld's best show animals, consistent and skilled at waterwork with trainers. She is also the reigning matriarch of SeaWorld Orlando.
Katina has had more calves — seven — than any other whale in captivity, in part because she became pregnant for the first time at about age nine or ten. She is considered to be an excellent mother generally and often surrogates or babysits the calves of other whales; the main exception were the first weeks with her sixth calf Nalani. First she ignored Nalani after her older sons showed aggression toward the newborn; then, she began displacing the baby as well. SeaWorld’s only lasting solution was moving the two males to other parks.
All but two of her calves have been separated from her, and only three of them survive to the present day.
Aunt: Katerina
Born: November 4, 1988
Died: May 5, 1999
Sired by Kanduke, a captured Northern Resident killer whale, Katerina was separated from her mother at the age of 2. Moved first to Aurora, she was relocated to the San Antonio park where she became very close to her nephew Keet.
Katerina died of a severe bacterial infection.
Uncle: Taku
Born: September 9, 1993
Died: October 17, 2007
This is where things really go south.
Taku was sired by Tilikum, and like his two younger siblings enjoyed the attentive care of his mother, Katina. But as he reached his teens, their relationship took an unhealthy turn, and Taku actually bred with his own mother. While the mating habits of wild killer whales are still somewhat mysterious, mammals who have healthy mating choices available generally do not mate with their parents.
There is evidence that the whales may have had an awareness of the problem, because while Taku had reacted well when his mother Katina had two more calves after his birth, he and his younger brother Ikaika began to displace his newborn daughter/sister Nalani shortly after their introduction, to the point that SeaWorld removed both of them from Orlando.
Taku died less than year after his move to San Antonio due to complications from a West Nile Virus infection. While wild killer whales are constantly in motion and usually well below the surface of the water, captive killer whales tend float near the surface, a behavior that can and has led to infection from mosquitoes they would not normally be subject to.
In addition to his inbred calf, Taku sired Takara’s second calf, Trua.
Aunt: Unna
Born: December 27, 1996
Died: December 21, 2015
The second calf born to Katina and Tilikum, she was separated from her mother at the age of six and moved to San Antonio.
She became pregnant in 2005, but the calf was stillborn. The fact that all of the possible fathers were either her half-brothers or nephews (or both in one case) may have been a factor.
I've actually had to alter my original family tree graphic, as Unna died the same day I published the list of Keet's paternal relatives. She was infected with candida, a fungus that that is rarely fatal in humans and usually presents as a vaginal yeast infection or thrush. Her death from this common fungus is an indication that she was immunocompromised, possibly as a result of the many antibiotics the whales are regularly put on.
Uncle: Ikaika
Born: August 25, 2002
Ikaika, or “Ike,” is the third calf resulting from the pairing of Katina and Tilikum, and his history is complex. Earlier I mentioned that he and his older brother Taku displaced his sister/niece, Nalani, but his form of aggression was sexual as he attempted to mate with the newborn. All three were put on diazepam, and shortly afterwards Ikaika was selected for a breeding loan with Marineland in Niagara Falls despite being too young to actually breed (he was four years old).
The three female mating prospects in Canada dwindled to one, an older female named Kiska. Marineland had difficulty pairing the two as Ikaika would bite Kiska, and the whales would be separated. These separations, in addition to SeaWorld’s belief that Marineland's veterinary and training standards were insufficient, prompted a lawsuit as SeaWorld demanded that Ikaika be returned to their parks. Marineland claimed that the real reason behind the lawsuit was that the death of Sumar in 2011 left their San Diego park without a viable breeding male. In any event, SeaWorld won the lawsuit and moved Ikaika to SeaWorld San Diego in 2012. Ikaika's bad habits of biting at boots and pulling on arms and his terrible dental health are a matter of public record thanks largely to court documents in this case.
To date, Ikaika has sired no calves in any park.
Aunt/Cousin: Nalani
Born: September 18, 2006
Poor Nalani is the most inbred calf in any SeaWorld park. Although the removal of Taku and Ikaika stabilized her relationship with her mother, she still faced aggression from another dominant female, Taima, until that whale's death in 2010. Her profile states that of all the Orlando calves, she is "the most attached and concerned with her mother's whereabouts."
Uncle: Makaio
Born: October 9, 2010
The youngest of Katina and Tilikum's calves, he was born only days after Katina’s first calf, Kalina, died. He has benefited from Katina's typical good mothering habits.
Learning the frequency with which SeaWorld bred their whales and that the whales were inbred, sometimes deliberately, was a shock to my system. It successfully kept the tanks full, but with all the rearranging of whales from park to park, there could be no argument that this was a stable or healthy social structure. And these whales’ stories are not unique, because if you pick almost any whale and look at their bloodline, you will find similar or even worse incidents.
Keet taught me to love killer whales; Keet’s family taught me how they should, and should not, be treated.