Kshamenk

Kshamenk in 2012. Photo provided by So fía.

## Family

### Calves

*Belén's Stillborn (1998)*, *Belén's Unborn Calf (2000)*, *Takara's Miscarriage (2012)*, Makani, Kamea

Kshamenk (*pronounced shah-MENK*) is an approximately 33-year-old male Argentinian killer whale who currently lives at Mundo Marino. He stranded on November 17th, 1992 in Samborombon Bay, Argentina on November 17th, 1992 at approximately 3 years old. He was rescued by Mundo Marino shortly after his stranding and deemed unreleasable by the Argentinian government following his rehabilitation. He has lived without the companionship of any other orcas since the death of Belén in 2000.

## Rescue and Early Life

On November 17th, 1992 (often mistakenly reported as September), two fisherman found four killer whales stranded on a beach in Samborombon Bay, Argentina. Three of the whales were large bulls, while the fourth was much smaller. Because the whales were so far away from the water, the fisherman felt they could not do anything, and left. They informed Mundo Marino about the killer whales on the next day.

When Mundo Marino arrived, they only found one of the whales, the smallest individual. The others had presumably managed to get back to the water. The location where the whale stranded was only accessible by foot during low tide, so rescue operations had to wait until the following morning. On 6PM on November 19th, Kshamenk arrived at Mundo Marino. He was severely sunburnt and dehydrated after being stranded, and his health was monitored closely.

## Life at Mundo Marino

After recovering from the stranding, Kshamenk, legally owned by the Argentinian government as he is native fauna, was placed at Mundo Marino. Another orca, a young Argentinian female named Belen who had also been rescued after stranding, already lived at the facility.

Belen fell pregnant by Kshamenk at least twice. She gave birth to a stillborn in February of 1998, and was four months pregnant when she passed away on February 4th, 2000.

After Belen died, Kshamenk was alone. He was housed with a female bottlenose dolphin named Floppy for companionship. The two still live together. This was not an ideal arrangement for Kshamenk, as he was living alone. Plans to build him a larger tank had been scrapped due to financial issues.  In late 2001, Six Flags attempted to import Kshamenk into the United States to live at Six Flags Worlds of Adventure in Ohio. They were also planning on importing a female orca named Shouka from France, and there was hope the two would breed.  The import ultimately fell through due to Argentinian law, and Kshamenk stayed at Mundo Marino.

At some point in 2010, trainers from SeaWorld collected 24 samples of Kshamenk's sperm for their artificial insemination program.  A female from SeaWorld San Diego named Kasatka and a female from SeaWorld San Antonio named Takara were both artificially inseminated and became pregnant. Although Takara lost her first calf with Kshamenk a few months into the pregnancy, she was artificially inseminated again and became pregnant shortly after. In February of 2013, Kasatka gave birth to a son named Makani, Kshamenk's first living calf. In December of that year, Takara gave birth to a daughter named Kamea. Kshamenk has never met his calves.

Around September 2022, Kshamenk's physical appearance seemed to have taken a drastic turn. His body weight appeared substantially lower than it had been in the past, with a prominent dip behind his skull often seen in emaciated killer whales that is commonly referred to as "peanut head." Although his condition first appeared to improve in December 2022, as of January 2023, it appeared to have declined even further. His peanut head had become more exaggerated, there were prominent indents behind his eyepatches and dorsal fin due to low body fat, and his peduncle appeared very skinny. By July 2023, Kshamenk's body condition had not improved. At that this in time, there has been no comment made by any of Kshamenk's trainers, husbandrists, veterinarians, or Mundo Marino themselves. As of December 2023, Kshamenk seems to have gained a small amount of weight.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "DOC-NOAA-2017-000834"
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Updated Report on the Killer Whale Kshamenk"
3. ↑ "Killer Whales Unsuccessful Births by Mother's Name"
4. ↑ "In vitro sperm characterization and development of a sperm cryopreservation method using directional solidification in the killer whale (Orcinus orca)"