Introduction
Captivity used to be for entertainment only and these animals thrived in their natural habitats and eco-systems flourished without the help of conversation efforts; now we have made a planet where captivity is now a necessity for the survival of thousands, if not millions of species worldwide and this includes cetaceans such as the Orcinus orca.
Remaining Wildlife (2020): 32%
The more humans on the planet, the more space we need, such as schools, shops, houses and then there’s entertainment - cinemas, swimming pools, museums and even car parks. If we were to close down all zoological facilities today, not only will we have millions of homeless animals, but our natural systems will plummet. The amount of conservation efforts that our facilities provide us with, has helped us come so far. Wildlife is on the brink of extinction; we depend on wildlife as much as it depends on us. When our wildlife goes extinct, so will we. And so, it is up to us to do what’s right.
I have written a blog on ‘’A73, Springer’s’’ Story in my ‘’Born Wild: Orca Adoption’’ blog, read HERE and read Keiko's story from Free Willy HERE.
Scientific Studies
Killer Whales in captivity have participated in a variety of research studies. Some examples include flying a drone over captive orcas to assess what a healthy orca looks like, and comparing the imaging to wild orca populations.
SeaWorld’s Veterinary Services completed an article after researching the effects of age, sex and season within the blood analyte variations of clinically normal ex-situ (out-of-natural habitat/in captivity) Killer Whales.
They found that red blood cell parameters and associated renal analytes (chemical substance) increased with age; liver-related analytes and glucose decreased, and season affected 59% of the blood analytes. This information is vital for the whale’s medicine (if they need any). Knowing how something or what affects the whale’s health, is crucial for the animals’ carers to use this research to improve the care they provide.
Blood samples are taken from the whales’ fluke (the white side) through the major vein which is located on the ventral surface of the fluke, using a needle (which will be inserted by a trainer or veterinarian). The whale will be asked to turn onto its back, with its belly facing up.
This also means that the whales’ blowhole would be underwater and so when the animal wants to breathe, the trainer will gently turn the whale up-right so the whale can take a breath. It’s crucial that animals are trained to stay calm during these husbandry procedures, as it prevents the risk of injury (the same when taking a blood sample from a panicking child). Cetacean trainers will regularly ask the animals to present this behaviour for practice, this desensitises the animal when participating in the actual health examination; sometimes a trainer will press a finger onto the vein to simulate a needle - this minimizes the animal’s stress as much as possible as it is nothing to be afraid of. The animals are positively reinforced afterwards, this can make the animal excited for future examinations as they look forward to the reward after.
Everything that we know about growth rates, anatomy, gestation, metabolic rates, calf rearing, nursing and so much more in cetaceans such as orcas, has come from having them in human care. We don’t know much about other cetaceans such as larger whales; this is due to not having them in human care and we have not been able to study and learn about them in the intimate way we can with captive animals. This data directly helps wild researchers, as they can apply this information to wild animals.
As such, radio trackers used to understand travel patterns of wild dolphins would not be possible without being able to test them on animals in captivity to make sure the trackers would stay on for long periods of time.
It’s now possible to track pregnancies in wild dolphin populations, such as orca’s because we now know from captive dolphins exactly how big a female should be in various stages of pregnancy. This information is critically important for the endangered Southern Resident Orca population, whose numbers is currently down to around 70 animals. Every single pregnancy is and birth is vitally important to track, and this would not be possible without these incredible animals in human care.
Many animals, including whales, dolphins, turtles, fish, pinnipeds and birds are found deceased with their organ filled with plastics every month.
The Southern Resident Orca population is slowly starving to extinction from lack of prey caused by overfishing, noise pollution, and ocean toxicity as the black river dams ooze toxins into their habitat all the time.
The beloved Tiger (Panthera tigris), found in a variety of different habitats: grasslands, rainforests, jungles, mangrove swamps and even savannas. Unfortunately, 95% of historical tiger lands have perished, primarily due to human activity. We can’t save tigers without saving forests and the other biomes that they live in. Forests and other large tree areas are vital to the health of the planet and the life that inhabits it. This, climate change, hunters and more, is why now, there are more big cats in captivity than there is in the wild - they live 8-10 years in the wild, while some living up to 15-20 years, and up to 26 years in captivity. Rising sea levels, caused by climate change, is shrinking tigers habitats in India and Bangladesh’s mangrove forests - polluting the tigers drinking water as seawater is shifting into the freshwater the animals depend on to survive.
Thankfully they’re great swimmers - spending time in the water just to keep cool from global warming.
Antarctica is melting fast and in big quantities. The animals are losing space every day, which means they’re losing food - this is just a fraction of what’s happening around the world. The wild is dying, when one species dies, another loses their food and therefore another species goes extinct and the chain continues.
See more on cetacean studies:
Zoological Standards
Some facilities with Killer Whales, including SeaWorld, are AZA-Accredited. This means they meet strict regulations on animal welfare. See the full AZA standards of accreditation HERE. If you’re using a phone or tablet, it may download as a document.
https://assets.speakcdn.com/assets/2332/aza-accreditation-standards.pdf
Education
You see, animals such as sharks are misunderstood and warped as ruthless killers by the media: that could not be more further from the truth. It’s estimated that 16 humans are attacked by sharks per year; over 11,000 sharks are killed per hour by humans: that is 100 million sharks killed yearly (some sources claim it’s 250 million sharks killed yearly by humans).
Sharks are one of the most important species in the ocean, scavenging and eating the corpses of dead animals, cleaning the ocean and preventing disease break-outs while also controlling the population of many species. This is why sharks are also known as the ‘Vultures Of The Sea’ as they’re the natural bin-men of the ocean, whereas vultures are one of the bin-men on land.
Inspiration
Of course, we can all agree that seeing an animal such as a Killer Whale is a magical experience. Most conservationists or anyone in the animal industry is where they are today because of a memorial moment with an animal that changed the course of their life forever: the moment they were inspired to “believe”. Whether these people were inspired by watching a David Attenborough documentary or going to SeaWorld. If you ask people in the marine mammal industry, either if they’re a marine scientist or even a marine author, the most often answer you will receive will be, “I went to SeaWorld and when I saw Shamu (Killer Whale) up close and personal, that’s when I realised that I wanted to dedicate my entire life to help save and conserve these amazing animals."
The truth is, without inspiration, many people wouldn’t be where they are now. Whether they’re a cetacean trainer, a veterinarian, a marine scientist, or even if it’s not in the animal or environment industry - everyone’s passion is ignited by inspiration.
“Believe,” - SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment.
See the Animal Welfare Expertise website for a variety of research projects and papers, including The Cetacean Welfare Assessment: https://www.animalwelfareexpertise.com/the-cetacean-welfare-assessment
More:
Everything that we know about growth rates, anatomy, gestation, metabolic rates, calf rearing, nursing and so much more in cetaceans such as orcas, has come from having them in human care. We don’t know much about other cetaceans such as larger whales; this is due to not having them in human care and we have not been able to study and learn about them in the intimate way we can with captive animals. This data directly helps wild researchers, as they can apply this information to wild animals.
As such, radio trackers used to understand travel patterns of wild dolphins would not be possible without being able to test them on animals in captivity to make sure the trackers would stay on for long periods of time.
It’s now possible to track pregnancies in wild dolphin populations, such as orca’s because we now know from captive dolphins exactly how big a female should be in various stages of pregnancy. This information is critically important for the endangered Southern Resident Orca population, whose numbers is currently down to around 70 animals. Every single pregnancy is and birth is vitally important to track, and this would not be possible without these incredible animals in human care.
We cannot say things like, “those animals belong in the wild,” while we destroy the wild; we MUST have animals in human care to support those in the wild.
Credit:
Image by Ellie Davies.
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