Captive Cetaceans: A Handbook for Campaigners - Whale and ...

In orca society, where the spirit of kinship prevails, the oldest matriarch is typically
the dominant animal. In captivity, generally the oldest or largest female is the
dominant animal; however exceptions have occurred, especially in smaller facilities.
Trainer Gail Laule (1991) described her experiences working with orcas at
Marineland of the Pacific: "By far my most important teacher, and the animal that has
left the most lasting impression on me, was Orky. He and Corky, adult breeding killer
whales, lived together in a woefully inadequate facility, without holding or med pools.
...They had their roles, dominant male and subdominant female, and all the diversity
and subtlety of behaviour which those labels fail to reflect. In fact, it was Orky who
taught me that being dominant is not just a type of behaviour or a position in a
pecking order, it is an integral part of who that animal is. ...If showtime arrived and
Corky was reluctant to work, we made our best guess whether it was due to her
rebellion or his coercion, and took time-out accordingly."
Corky was indeed the subordinate animal when abruptly transferred to Sea World,
San Diego in January 1987. Having lived some 18 years in Marineland's meager
750,000 gallon tank, neither Orky nor Corky had experienced "gating", or using
interconnecting pools, such as those found at Sea World. Sea World had not held a
bull orca for nearly a year and reports soon surfaced that Sea World's orcas were
vocalising much more frequently.
No one paid much attention to the unrelenting harassment of Corky by Kandu, the
dominant orca. Then, in 1989, Kandu rammed Corky in front of a stadium full of
spectators, fracturing her own jaw. Spouting blood from a ruptured artery, Kandu died
45 minutes later. The show continued until puzzled trainers realised something was
wrong, then quickly ushered out the shocked spectators. Kandu's orphaned calf, only
11 months-old, even performed the following day. Sea World claimed it was a
"normal" display of dominance, and tried to suppress media accounts by describing
the incident as an "altercation" which ended tragically.
However, no researcher had witnessed aggression nearing this level in more than
twenty years of observing wild orcas. Researcher Kenneth Balcomb commented that,
"In the wild, they don't solve their problems aggressively. It's not normal. Killer
whales travel in kinship groups or clans and they don't have those aggressive
interactions. If other whales come along from a different group, they just avoid each
other. Obviously, you can't do that in a tank" (cited in Georgatos, 1989). Whilst some
aggressive incidents have been observed in recent years between resident and
transient orcas in the Pacific Northwest, such incidents were, generally, very low-key
in comparison to displays of aggression all too common in the captive setting.
Another example of incompatibility was the relationship between two male orcas at
Sea World's Florida park. Kotar was a small Icelandic orca, captured in 1978.
Kanduke arrived in 1987 from Marineland, Canada. He was a transient orca,
originally captured in British Columbia in 1975. These two types of orca would have
never been found together in nature. Both males frequently exhibited aggression
towards each other, with no opportunity to escape confrontations. A former trainer
reported that Kotar would often beach himself and make crying sounds. Kanduke was
also described as making continual crying vocalisations and occasionally beat his
head against the gate until it bled.
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