Kotar

Kotar. Photo provided by Tejas Cowboy.

## Family

### Calves

*Kahana's Miscarriage (1990)*, Takara, *Kenau's Unborn Calf (1991)*, *Samoa's Stillborn (1992)*, Keet, *Haida II's Calf (1994)*, Keto

### Grand-Children

*Kohana*, Kalia, *Halyn*, Trua, *Unna's Stillborn (2006)*, *Kayla's Miscarriage (2007)*, *Unna's Miscarriage (2009)*, Sakari, Adán, *Takara's Miscarriage (2012)*, *Victoria*, Kamea, *Kyara*, *Ula*

### Great Grand-Children

Adán, *Victoria*, *Amaya*

Kotar (*pronounced koh-TAAR*) was an approximately 17-year-old male Icelandic killer whale who lived at SeaWorld San Antonio. He was captured on October 9th, 1978, from South East Iceland at less than 1 year old. Kotar passed away due to lung disease on April 1st, 1995 at SeaWorld San Antonio.    Kotar was featured in the 1983 film  *Jaws 3-D*.  He is the father of Takara, Keet, and Keto.

## Early Life and Capture

Kotar was captured off the south-eastern coast of Iceland on October 9th, 1978. A day later, he was placed in a netted off sea pen in Grindavik harbour in south Iceland.

## Life at SeaWorld

### Moving to San Antonio

In 1988, Kotar, Kasatka, and a pregnant Kenau moved to SeaWorld's brand new park in Texas, SeaWorld San Antonio. In November of that year, Kenau gave birth to a daughter, Kayla.

In late 1989 or early 1990, despite being separated by a gate, Kotar and Kasatka mated, and Kasatka became pregnant. Kasatka was moved out of the park in February of 1990. At some point in 1990, Kahana became with his calf, although she had a miscarriage later that year in November. In the late spring or early summer, Kenau also became pregnant. In October, Kotar met Samoa when she was moved there from Ohio. Samoa became pregnant not long after.

Several major social changes occurred in 1991. In January, Kenau was transferred to SeaWorld Orlando, although she would lose her calf after she passed away later that year. Kasatka was moved out a month after Kenau in February, and would go on to successfully give birth to Kotar's daughter, Takara. Kayla was moved to SeaWorld Ohio in April, and Kahana died in May. Just a few weeks later, Kalina arrived from SeaWorld San Diego. Kalina became pregnant some point after her move. In March of 1992, Samoa had a stillbirth, and just a few days later she died as well.

In January of 1993, 2 new whales arrived at San Antonio, an adult female named Haida and a young male named Kyuquot. Just a month later, Kalina gave birth to her first calf, and Kotar's second successful calf, Keet. Haida became pregnant around this time as well. In 1994, Kalina became pregnant again, and she was moved back to Orlando in October. Just a month after Kalina's move, in November, Haida gave birth to a calf, although the little whale died just a month after her birth. A few days after the birth of Haida's calf, Katerina was moved to the park.

## Death

On April 1st, 1995,    Kotar passed away from an unspecified lung disease.  According to unofficial sources, it may have been acute hemorrhagic pneumonia.  According to some sources, Kotar was actually killed when a gate accidentally crushed his skull, although the origin and validity of this claim is unknown.

While his death is listed as happening on April 4th in the National Marine Mammal Inventory Report,  newspaper articles published at the time lists his date of death as April 1st. As many of these articles were published prior to April 4th, his death happening on this date is impossible.

According to some sources, Kotar was actually killed when a gate accidentally crushed his skull, although the origin and validity of this claim is unknown.

Just a month after his death, Kalina gave birth to his second son, Keto.

## Behavioral Incidents

Veteran animal trainer Jim Horton stated that "Kotar was a really aggressive whale. He hated animal care. He would lunge at us if we got too close to the side of the pool. It's like he knew when the animal care guys came down to Shamu Stadium." Former trainer Samantha Berg claimed that other staff often joked about aggressive incidents with Kotar, "But even when I did hear stories about the kind of stuff that happened, everybody would joke about them in a way. It was like, 'Here. Take a look at Mike Boos’ side and look at that big bite mark from Kotar.' And everybody was like, 'Ha, ha. I remember when you got that!' 'Oh yeah, they’ll take you down to the bottom just as long as they can because they know exactly how long it takes for you to run out of air, and then they’ll bring you back up. Ha, ha!'" In the 1990's, Kotar turned his open jaws toward his trainers during an early attempt to collect semen.

## Legacy

Although only 3 of Kotar's calves survived, they all went on to have calves of their own. Takara had six calves: Kohana in 2004, Trua in 2005, Sakari in 2010, a miscarriage in 2012, Kamea in 2013, and Kyara in 2017. Kohana went on to have 2 calves of her own, Adán in 2010 and Victoria in 2013. Keet sired at least 2 calves, Kalia in 2004 and Halyn in 2005, and he likely sired a stillbirth from 2005 and a miscarriage from 2006 as well. Kalia gave birth to Amaya in 2014. Keto sired at least 3 calves, the aforementioned Adán and Victoria, as well as Ula in 2018. Kotar currently has 9 living descendants.

## Galleries

* **Photos** of Kotar
* **Videos** of Kotar

## Transfer History

Kotar's Transfer History
 Capture Boat (Guðrún?)
 Grindavik Harbor Sea Pen, Iceland
 SeaWorld San Diego, California
 SeaWorld Orlando, Florida

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Killer whale dies unexpectedly at Sea World"
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Sea World reports death of Kotar the killer whale"
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Whale's death at Sea World leaves caretakers shocked"
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "2023-000748 MMIRS"
5. ↑ "Jaws 3 (1983) Orca Whale" by Orca: The Killer Whale on YouTube
6. ↑ "Keto & Tilikum Express the Stress of Orca Captivity"
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Deceased Orcas - Inherently Wild
8. ↑ "SeaWorld’s Most Rewarding and Traumatic Job"
9. ↑ "Samantha Berg and Carol Ray Talk BLACKFISH, Working at SeaWorld, Speaking Out after the Death of Dawn Brancheau and SeaWorld's Questionable Tactics"
10. ↑ John Hargrove, *Beneath the Surface*