Ten years in the making: a killer whale finally gives birth

The baby calf (rear) was born on the 16th of March

The proud new mum, Wikie, produced her offspring at the Marineland aqua park in Antibes, after a mere 30 minutes of labour and an 18-month pregnancy.

The newborn calf, a girl, was fathered by Ulysees, an American male from the SeaWorld park in San Diego and measures 6.5 feet in length and weighs 330 pounds.

The birth follows 10 years of research and hard work by Marineland Antibes, in partnership with Todd Robeck, a top Cetacean researcher at SeaWorld in San Antonio, Texas.

Jon Kershaw, Marineland's wildlife director, said: “It takes months to train the killer whales to calmly accept insemination and a dose of 2 million sperms are usually injected into the female whales to get them pregnant. In Wikie’s case, she had 4 doses (about 8 million sperms) injected into her ovaries.”

The insemination process takes barely a quarter of an hour.

Kershaw added: “The baby orca has survived its first month after birth. This time is very dangerous for most offspring but fortunately she has pulled through it and we are ecstatic to have her as part of the family.”

In the sea park, the new babe is the 5th killer whale to join the pod.

Marineland says that their successful breeding of the mammal will advance current research into artificial insemination and killer whale breeding in Europe.

Orca reproduction

Female killer whales, orcinus orca, usually begin calving at between 14 and 15 years old and stop at around the age of 40, sometimes giving birth as often as every three years.

They nurse their young for at least six months and many will do so for up to a year or longer. Adult males can reach a weight of 10 tonnes.

The whales normally give birth to a single calf, though there have been cases of twins. In the wild, killer whales live off fish, squid, seals, sea lions, penguins, dolphins, porpoises and large whales like the blue whale.

They have no natural predators and can live to between 50 and 80 years of age.

Baby names

Now, the only challenge left for Marineland is deciding on a name for the new baby.

Marineland Antibes has opted to turn the task into a game and is inviting the public to tell them what they think the orca should be called. All you have to do is visit their facebook page to make your suggestion.

AA