56-blackfish: Gender: MalePod: N/APlace of Capture: Born at Sealand of the PacificDate of Capture: B
56-blackfish: Gender: MalePod: N/APlace of Capture: Born at Sealand of the PacificDate of Capture: Born December 24, 1991Age at Capture: Captive bornCurrent Location: SeaWorld of TexasOn December 24, 1991, Icelandic female Haida II gave birth to her first calf, a male named Kyuquot, sired by the Icelandic male Tilikum.While another female, Nootka IV, also gave birth to a calf by Tilikum, it died less than a month later. Kyuquot was born just several months after the 3 adult whales were involved with the death of trainer Keltie Byrne.Following this incident, Tilikum was transferred to SeaWorld Orlando in 1992. In 1993, the others were transferred as well, with Nootka IV going to the Orlando park as well, while Haida II and Kyuquot were transferred to the San Antonio park where they met a number of new whales, including Kalina, Kotar, Keet, and many more later on.Kyuquot was very close with his mother, and remained close to her until her death in August 2001. He has been known to be “moody” and refuse behaviors, but has only been involved in two reported incidents.On August 1, 2003 during a portion of a show, Kyuquot refused to let a trainer exit the pool, refusing callback tones and slaps. While Kyuquot supposedly did not become aggressive, the trainer was only able to escape the incident after pulling himself over the glass wall.During another incident on July 27, 2004, Kyuquot became aggressive during a show with trainer Steve Aibel. He began doing “bows” over Aibel, submerging him underwater multiple times, refusing to let Aibel exit the pool and ignoring callback tones and slaps from the other trainers. After a few minutes, when Aibel was in the middle of the pool, Kyuquot began to calm down, moving towards the stage while Aibel made a quick exit. A few days later, Aibel was back in the water with him, but following the 2010 ruling by OSHA, waterworks with any whales has since been stopped.Today, Kyuquot is 23 years old and still resides at the Texas park. He has never sired any calves of his own.x | x | x | x | x | x | x -- source link