A Week For Every Whale #35. Makaio

Editor's note: At the end of 2013 there were 52 orcas living in captivity around the world. Each week, 52Orcas profiles an individual orca so we can better understand his or her life history. You can see the entire project on the 52Orcas Dodo page here.

SeaWorld parks currently rely on captive breeding programs to maintain their collection of killer whales. This can involve artificially inseminating killer whales with manually collected semen. In the wild, the average female killer whale will give birth to about five calves during her entire reproductive lifecycle. By the age of 34, the Icelandic whale Katina had already given birth to seven calves. Her most recent is Makaio, the youngest orca at SeaWorld Orlando, who was sired by another Icelandic whale, Tilikum. His birth came at a sad time for the Orlando population; less than a week after his oldest sister Kalina died (the original baby Shamu). Today, at only four years old, Makaio is showing some independence from his mom, swimming into different pools and spending time with other older females.