Unsuccessful Pregnancies – Inherently Wild

A look at failed killer whale pregnancies in marine parks and aquariums

Current number of known unsuccessful pregnancies in captivity: 33

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Name	Mother	Father	Sex	Place of Death	Date of Death	Cause of Death
No name	Bonnie	Wild orca	F	Marine World Africa, California, USA	1968/7/14	Stillbirth (cause unknown but transportation in a sling when Bonnie was heavily pregnant may have contributed to the loss of her unborn calf)
No name	Kianu	Wild orca	?	Marine World Africa, California, USA	1968/8/22	Stillbirth (cause unknown but transportation in a sling when Kianu was heavily pregnant may have contributed to the loss of her unborn calf)
No name	Shamu	Unknown (likely Ramu)	?	SeaWorld San Diego, California, USA	1971/8/23	Shamu passed away during her pregnancy. The only source of this information is a personal communication between Dr. D. Kenney and Sam H. Ridgway (see Ridgway 1979, p. 101); pregnancy may have gone unnoticed until necropsy.
No name	Unnamed female (captured 1979/2/26)	Wild orca	?	Nanki Shirahama Adventure World, Japan	1979/3	Stillbirth (cause unknown but transportation in a sling when she was heavily pregnant may have contributed to the loss of her unborn calf)
No name	Corky 2	Orky 2	?	Marineland of the Pacific, California, USA	1980/4/1	Premature Stillbirth
SWC-OO-8627	Kandu 5	Winston	F	SeaWorld San Diego, California, USA	1986/1/31	Stillbirth
No name	Corky 2	Orky 2	?	Marineland of the Pacific, California, USA	1986/7/27	Miscarriage
No name	Corky 2	Orky 2	?	SeaWorld San Diego, California, USA	1987/8	Miscarriage
No name	Kona 2	Kanduke	?	SeaWorld Orlando, Florida, USA	1987/10/15	Kona 2 passed away during the 9th month of her pregnancy - fetus found at the necropsy of mother
No name	Kahana	Kotar	?	SeaWorld San Antonio, Texas, USA	1990/11/6	Miscarriage
No name	Freya	Kim 2	?	Marineland Antibes, France	1991/3/3	Stillbirth
No name	Kenau	Kotar	M	SeaWorld Orlando, Florida, USA	1991/8/6	Kenau passed away during the 12th month of her pregnancy.
No name	Samoa	Kotar	F	SeaWorld San Antonio, Texas, USA	1992/3/14	Stillbirth. Samoa went into premature labour due to a fungal infection that had spread to her brain. After two hours both she and her unborn calf passed away.
No name	Freya	Kim 2	?	Marineland Antibes, France	1993/3	Stillbirth
No name	Nootka 4	Tilikum	?	SeaWorld Orlando, Florida, USA	1994/8/18	Stillbirth
No name	Gudrun	Tilikum	?	SeaWorld Orlando, Florida, USA	1996/2/21	Stillbirth
No name	Kalina	Tilikum	F	SeaWorld Orlando, Florida, USA	1997/2/27	Stillbirth
No name	A-chan	Wild orca	?	Nanki Shirahama Adventure World, Japan	1997/4	Miscarriage (cause unknown but transportation in a sling when A-chan was pregnant may have contributed to the loss of her unborn calf)
No name	Maggie	Bingo	F	Kamogawa Sea World, Japan	1997/10/5	Stillbirth
No name	Belén	Kshamenk	?	Mundo Marino, Buenos Aires, Argentina	1998/2	Stillbirth
No name	Belén	Kshamenk	?	Mundo Marino, Buenos Aires, Argentina	2000/2/4	Belén passed away during the 4th month of her pregnancy.
No name	Freya	Kim 2	?	Marineland Antibes, France	2001/3	Stillbirth
No name	Haida 2	Tilikum	M	SeaWorld San Antonio, Texas, USA	2001/8/1	Haida 2 passed away during the 5th month of her pregnancy. (Haida 2 had been AI'd with Tilikum's semen)
No name	Nootka 5	Kandu 7	?	Marineland Ontario, Canada	Winter 2001	Miscarriage
No name	Freya	Kim 2	?	Marineland Antibes, France	2003/4	Stillbirth
No name	Neocia	Kandu 7	?	Marineland Ontario, Canada	2004/7	Miscarriage
No name	Taima	Tilikum	?	SeaWorld Orlando, Florida, USA	2005/3?	Miscarriage
No name	Unna	Keet	F	SeaWorld San Antonio, Texas, USA	2006/4	Stillbirth
No name	Nootka 5	Kandu 7	?	Marineland Ontario, Canada	2006/5	Miscarriage
No name	Kayla	Keet	M	SeaWorld Orlando, Florida, USA	2007/5	Miscarriage (cause unknown but transportation in a sling when Kayla was pregnant may have contributed to the loss of her unborn calf - Kayla had been pregnant when moved from Texas to Florida in November 2006, calf died by April 2007 ultrasound.)
No name	Taima	Tilikum	?	SeaWorld Orlando, Florida, USA	2010/6/6	Stillbirth. Taima dies during labour of a near full-time fetus.
No name	Takara	Kshamenk	?	SeaWorld San Antonio, Texas, USA	2012/3	Miscarriage (Takara had been AI'd with Kshamenk's semen in July 2011. According to at-the-time trainer John Hargrove, the insemination resulted in a pregnancy.)
No Name	Cookie	?	?	Shanghai Haichang Ocean Park, China	2023/7	Stillbirth/Miscarriage

Sources:
– Data collected by OrcaHome.de (discontinued) was used as baseline for this spreadsheet.
– Other notable sources include SeaWorld’s 2010 Animal Profiles, “Orca – The Whale Called Killer” by Erich Hoyt, The Orca Project and Cetacean Cousins.