Gender: FemalePod: N/APlace of Capture: Born at Marineland Antibes, FranceDate of Capture: Born June

Gender: FemalePod: N/APlace of Capture: Born at Marineland Antibes, FranceDate of Capture: Born June 1, 2001Age at Capture: Captive bornCurrent Location: Marineland Antibes, FranceOn June 1, 2001, the Icelandic female Sharkan gave birth to her third calf at Marineland Antibes in France; a female later known as Wikie and sired by the Icelandic male Kim II. Unfortunately, Sharkan died at the start of 2009.Later on in 2009, Wikie became the youngest whale ever to be successfully Artificially Inseminated at the age of just 8 years old with semen from the Icelandic male Ulises, who currently resides at SeaWorld of California. Also in that same year, Wikie was involved in an incident where she pushed a trainer underwater, just before waterworks were stopped at the park.In 2011, Wikie gave birth to her first calf. At first it was thought the calf was female and was named Moana, but it was later announced that Moana was a male but would keep his name. Moana was the first Orca born through AI in Europe, and the 3rd in the world.Right after Moana, however, Wikie became pregnant again and gave birth in November 2013 to another male who was later known as Keijo. It is believed that his father is Valentin, who happens to be Wikie’s half brother as they share the same father.In May 2014, a video was posted to YouTube showing Wikie, Moana, and Keijo at the slideout. In the video, Keijo is lying on the slideout while Wikie continuously blocks him from re-entering the water, as well as coming onto the slideout twice, pushing Keijo further back towards the railing. This is most likely a learned behavior on Wikie’s part, as there is photo evidence of Sharkan forcing Wikie onto the slideout as a calf. It’s unknown why Sharkan ever displayed this behavior in the first place, however, as no wild populations have ever been observed purposely beaching their own calves.Today, Wikie is 13 years old and still resides at Marineland Antibes with her two sons.x | x | x | x | x -- source link
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