What Do You Know About Seaworld?

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136 dolphins currently (February 2016), spread across four parks.

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11 at SeaWorld San Diego, 7 in Orlando, 5 in San Antonio, and 6 at Loro Parque.

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Bottlenose dolphins, killer whales, beluga whales, pacific white-sided dolphins, Commerson's dolphins, and short-finned pilot whales. (Not counting temporary rescues.)

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Or 10% of bottlenose dolphins, 16% of lags, 17% of killer whales, 25% of Commerson's dolphins, 28% of pilot whales, and 50% of belugas. (Not counting rescues.)

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One of them, Winston, eventually ended up at SeaWorld, but that was six years later.

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27000 of these and counting. Not all of them could be saved, but every single one got a second chance from certain death, and every single one healthy enough was returned to its natural habitat.

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Corky 2, estimated to have been born in 1964, captured in 1969 and came to SeaWorld almost 30 years ago.

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6%, with a total of two calves, born to Kenau in 1986, and Haida 2 in 1994. Compare this to the wild rate of up to 50%. Malia in the picture is today a very healthy and thriving nine-year old.

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Kasatka, together with Kotar, Kahana and Shawn, back in 1978. The year after Star Wars hit the cinemas, and when President Carter sat in the Whitehouse.

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The last time they captured a bottlenose dolphin was in 1980.

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False. It has been illegal to bring these animals into the United States for over 20 years, and only one animal remains from those hunts in the entire country - a false killer whale captured in 1987. SeaWorld's dolphins were captured in the United States.

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False. Tilikum was captured off Iceland in 1983 and sold to a Canadian park called Sealand of the Pacific. He came to SeaWorld Orlando in 1992, and has remained there ever since.

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False. No sensible animal keeper would ever endanger their animal's health, and any modern organization bases their training on positive reinforcement. Withholding food is called negative punishment, which is the exact opposite. Or as a thought experiment: If you were to train a dog, parrot or any animal using treats as a reward, do you really think that animal has to be starved in order to do what you asked?

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False. Only once has SeaWorld separated a mother from its calf without there being an immediate threat to the calf, and that was with Kalina and Keet, in 1994. Kalina was known to teach her calves independence sooner than other moms. Mothers and offspring have been separated other times, but then they were grown up and moved to ensure good social units.

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False. Tilikum has fathered a total of 21 calves (including 6 stillbirths and miscarriages), and only two of these were conceived through artificial insemination. Nakai in 2001, and Kohana in 2002. He has not been used in breeding since 2010, when his last calf Makaio was born. Another 3 calves have been conceived through AI, by two other males, one of which (Kshamenk) is in Argentina and can't legally be moved, so his genes would be lost if not through AI.

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There has been one case of accidental inbreeding, between a mother and son. The calf, Nalani, is now almost ten years old and doing very well. Sexual behavior between related individuals is common among cetaceans, and this was nothing abnormal. Loro Parque has bred a half-uncle and half-niece, genetically as close as cousins, but that is not technically inbreeding as that level is often legal and acceptable in humans, as well as all other animals.
If you want to complain about inbred animals, look no further than your purebred (and captive) dog.

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True. There is nothing strange about rakes, and it's very easy to find on wild whales. It's how the dominant animals displace the subdominant animals.

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False. Dorsal fins collapse because of gravity. Zoological whales spend more time at the surface than wild ones, so the six foot tall, very heavy dorsal fins of the males flop over. Sometimes it also happens in females, but that varies between facilities, individual behavior and genes.

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False. SeaWorld is not into having the animals jump through hoops or balance balls. The tricks - or as they're called in animal trainer lingo - behaviors are natural behaviors the animals will do in the wild, but sometimes with a twist added, to teach the animals new things and add more variety to their lives. They're there to show people what the animals are like, and to yes, inspire people through entertainment; to make them love the animal.

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False. No one is perfect, and SeaWorld is no different. Throughout their 50+ years, the organization has had many growing pains, and as all other animal keeping practices, they are continually changing and evolving to give their animals the best lives they can possibly get. Not only because no visitors want to see sad and sick animals, but because it's what they wholeheartedly believe in. But they can only keep getting better in the future if we let them. Sadly, some people uneducated about SeaWorld want to pass laws to keep them in the past.