Aggression
Kandu V August 1989
Agression among orcas in the wild is very rare, although "rake" marks have been observed in wild orcas. In captivity however it is a common thing for Orcas to show agression towards one another. Some speculate that the problem lies within the social structure. In the wild orcas live in a Matrilineal society. That meaning that the Matriarch or oldest female having her offspring, grand-offspring etc. a part of her life for her entire life. Male wild orcas are what u might call "mama's boys" staying with their mothers for her entire life. They do leave her for breif periods to mate with unrelated females but, they ALWAYS return to her.
In captivity the "societies" or social structures are very different. There have been many instances of orcas within a park showing agression towards each other. The parks may have u beleive that they live in pods. That is incorrect, what they live in is a forced social structure can can be changed at anytime. Seaworld in particular moves its orcas around quite frequently between their 3 parks to fill them as needed. For a while SeaWorld owned a park in Ohio that was only open in the summer so they would ship a few orcas there to live for the summer and once fall hit they were shiped to another Seaworld until the summer when the Ohio park re-opened for the season. Many of the Orcas in captivity have been observed with severe rake marks. As it stands right now each of the 3 Seaworld parks has what u would call a "Dominant female" that the other orcas seems to be submissive to and seem to take their behavioral cues from. At Seaworld Orlando Katina seems the dominant one there with Kayla following at a close second. In Seaworld San Diego Kasatka is without a doubt the dominant force there. Unna and Takara seem to share the dominant female role at Seaworld San Antonio. In my opinion the problem of dominance seems to be far worse for the males at these parks than the females. Take Tilikum at Seaworld Orlando for instance, he started out at Sealand of the Pacific where he was often abused by the 2 females there Haida 2 and Nootka 4. I have recently heard reports that when he is prompted to go into a tank with the adult females that are at seaworld Orlando he gets "big eyed" and starts making high pitched vocals. To me this seems as though he is scared. The problem is that although some of the adolescent females are his children and/or grandchildren, he has no relation (other than breeding) with the adult females there. In short, he doesnt belong to anyone, he isnt anyones son. In the wild Tilikum would still be living and thriving in his mothers pod.
The most infamous act of aggression between captive orcas happened in August 1989 at Seaworld San Diego. The dominant female there Kandu V tried to "rake" Corky 2, she missed and continued to swim into the back pool where she ended up ramming the wall. She broke her jaw and ruptured an artery in her jaw. The crowd of onlookers was quickly ushered out and after bleeding out for 45 minutes, Kandu V bled to death.
In captivity the "societies" or social structures are very different. There have been many instances of orcas within a park showing agression towards each other. The parks may have u beleive that they live in pods. That is incorrect, what they live in is a forced social structure can can be changed at anytime. Seaworld in particular moves its orcas around quite frequently between their 3 parks to fill them as needed. For a while SeaWorld owned a park in Ohio that was only open in the summer so they would ship a few orcas there to live for the summer and once fall hit they were shiped to another Seaworld until the summer when the Ohio park re-opened for the season. Many of the Orcas in captivity have been observed with severe rake marks. As it stands right now each of the 3 Seaworld parks has what u would call a "Dominant female" that the other orcas seems to be submissive to and seem to take their behavioral cues from. At Seaworld Orlando Katina seems the dominant one there with Kayla following at a close second. In Seaworld San Diego Kasatka is without a doubt the dominant force there. Unna and Takara seem to share the dominant female role at Seaworld San Antonio. In my opinion the problem of dominance seems to be far worse for the males at these parks than the females. Take Tilikum at Seaworld Orlando for instance, he started out at Sealand of the Pacific where he was often abused by the 2 females there Haida 2 and Nootka 4. I have recently heard reports that when he is prompted to go into a tank with the adult females that are at seaworld Orlando he gets "big eyed" and starts making high pitched vocals. To me this seems as though he is scared. The problem is that although some of the adolescent females are his children and/or grandchildren, he has no relation (other than breeding) with the adult females there. In short, he doesnt belong to anyone, he isnt anyones son. In the wild Tilikum would still be living and thriving in his mothers pod.
The most infamous act of aggression between captive orcas happened in August 1989 at Seaworld San Diego. The dominant female there Kandu V tried to "rake" Corky 2, she missed and continued to swim into the back pool where she ended up ramming the wall. She broke her jaw and ruptured an artery in her jaw. The crowd of onlookers was quickly ushered out and after bleeding out for 45 minutes, Kandu V bled to death.
Dental Health of Captive Orca's
Note the condition of Tili's teeth
Another of the issues often brought up when speaking of captive Orca's is the issue of their dental health. Many Orca's in captivity have very damaged teeth. When an Orca bites at the gates between pools or "jaw pops" it can break their teeth, once this happens they will ahve a "pulpotomy" performed by their trainers. What this is is a procedure in which the animals trainer will drill out the tooth out. Once this ius done, the Orca's mouth then has to be flushed out everyday with water to insure that no food gets in the tooth and causee an infection in the bloodstream. In the picture at left, you can see that Tilikum has virtually NO TEETH on his lower jaw at all. The link to a great article about this will follow:
http://theorcaproject.wordpress.com/2010/09/25/the-hidden-cost-of-captivity-oral-health-of-killer-whales-exposed/