Katina with trainer Dawn Brancheau in 1998.
| |
| Species | Orca (Orcinus orca) |
|---|---|
| Breed | Icelandic |
| Sex | Female |
| Born | c. 1975 (age 48–49) |
| Years active | 1978–present |
| Mate(s) |
|
| Offspring |
|
| Weight | 2,676 kg (5,900 lb) |
| Height | 18 ft 0 in (5.49 m) |
Katina (born c. 1975)[1] is a female orca who lives at SeaWorld OrlandoinFlorida. She was captured off Iceland at approximately three years of age on 26 October 1978. She is the most successful breeding female orca in captivity. SeaWorld Orlando celebrates her birthday on 1 June every year.
Upon her capture, Katina was purchased by MarinelandinNiagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, where she was first named Kandu 6. She was shipped to the facility soon after. However, she did not spend much time there. Sometime between April and June 1979, Katina was bought by SeaWorld. She was first sent to their park in San Diego. In 1982, Katina was moved to SeaWorld OhioinAurora with another female named Kasatka, also captured in Iceland in October 1978. For two years, the two would perform in the Ohio park during the summer months and then be moved back to San Diego for the winter. Finally, in September or October 1984, Katina was transferred to SeaWorld Orlando. She has remained there ever since.[2]
Asterisk signifies that the animal is deceased.
Katina became pregnant in the early spring of 1984 at SeaWorld San Diego. She had mated with a male named Winston, a member of the Southern resident orca community captured near Coupeville, Washington in 1970. Soon afterward, she was moved back to SeaWorld Ohio for the summer. While there, the trainers realized she was pregnant. Because of this, she was moved to Orlando at the end of the summer season.[3]
On September 26, 1985, Katina went into labor. A few hours later, she bore her first calf, a female, who was named Kalina. Although ten orca calves had been born in captivity prior to Kalina, none of them had survived past a few weeks. This made Kalina the first orca calf to be successfully born and raised in captivity, which made Katina the first successful captive mother. Kalina had four offspring of her own and died at SeaWorld Orlando in October 2010.
Katina has given birth to seven calves, the first five of whom have been separated from her and shipped to other parks. Four have died.
In early 1987, an adult male named Kanduke (c. 1971 – 20 September 1990) arrived in Orlando. He and Katina soon mated. Katina bore her second calf on November 4, 1988. It was another female named Katerina. In early 1991, Katerina was moved to SeaWorld San Antonio. She died there on May 5, 1999, at 10.5 years of age.
A male named Tilikum came to SeaWorld in January 1992. It wasn't long before Katina was pregnant again. She gave birth to her first son on September 9, 1993; the calf was named Taku. He was transferred to SeaWorld San Antonio in November 2006, where he died 11 months later from the West Nile virus.[4]
Just seven months prior to Taku's birth, Katina's older daughter Kalina gave birth to her first calf, Keet, on February 2, 1993, thus making Katina a grandmother. Keet was born in SeaWorld San Antonio, where Kalina resided at the time.
Katina's next calf, a female named Unna, was born on December 27, 1996. In December 2002, Unna was sent to SeaWorld San Antonio, where she died in December 2015.
Katina's fifth calf, Ikaika, was a male born on August 25, 2002. Ikaika was separated from his mother at age 4, when he was sent to Marineland Canada on a breeding loan in November 2006. He was eventually transferred to SeaWorld San Diego in November 2011. Taku, Unna and Ikaika were all fathered by Tilikum.
Taku impregnated his mother when he reached sexual maturity. The resulting calf, a female named Nalani was born on September 18, 2006. According to an internal SeaWorld document, both Taku and Ikaika regularly displaced Nalani after they were introduced to her and Katina herself began displacing her and focusing her attention on her sons. Katina's usual maternal behavior only resumed after Taku and Ikaika were moved out of SeaWorld Orlando in November 2006.[5]
On October 9, 2010, Katina gave birth to her seventh calf and her third son, Makaio, just five days after her first offspring Kalina died. He was sired by Tilikum, who had already fathered three of her previous children. As of December 2010, Makaio was 7 feet long and weighed approximately 550 pounds.[6]
Besides Keet, Katina's daughter Kalina had three other calves: Keto (male; born 1995), Tuar (male; born 1999), and Skyla (female; born 2004 died 2021). Katina's son Taku fathered a male calf named Trua who was born to Takara on November 23, 2005. Keet, Kalina's oldest calf, has fathered two daughters of his own: Kalia (2004) and Halyn (2005–2008), making Katina the first ever great-grandmother at SeaWorld. Keto, Kalina's second son, had a son, Adán, in 2010, and a daughter, Victoria (2012-2013). On December 2, 2014, Kalia gave birth to Katina's first great-great grandchild, Amaya, sired by Ulises. Amaya died in August 2021.
Katina is about 48 years old and is the second oldest orca in captivity after Corky, who lives at SeaWorld San Diego. Measuring 17 feet and weighing in at about 5,200 pounds, Katina is small compared to most other females but she is rather bulky. She is considered an excellent performer and very reliable. Jeffrey Ventre, a former SeaWorld trainer, called her "the Cadillac of killer whales".[7] Katina is one of SeaWorld Orlando's main performers and is used daily. She is generally relaxed, sweet-natured and patient and has never been involved in any major known incidents with one of her trainers, although SeaWorld has reported that on five occasions between 1989 and 1995, she mouthed, bumped or pushed a trainer.[5]
Being SeaWorld Orlando's matriarch, Katina has been the dominant orca at the park since 1987.[5] She can sometimes, although rarely, be stubborn and refuse to perform. When this happens, usually all of the other orcas follow suit. In 2006, a female named Kayla arrived in Orlando from SeaWorld San Antonio. She and Katina spent a lot of time together until Kayla's death in January 2019.[8]
In March 2018, Katina sustained a major injury to her dorsal fin. SeaWorld stated that she had been interacting with several orcas and that Trua had been near her at the moment of the injury, but that it did not know which whale was responsible for it. Her dorsal fin was treated with medical honey and cold laser therapy and it has since fully healed, although a notch is still visible at its base.[9][10]
Katina currently lives with her two youngest offspring, Nalani and Makaio, her grandson Trua, and an unrelated female, Malia, born in 2007.
