Inbred Orcas

Inbred orcas are a rare breed of orcas that can almost never be seen in captivity or the wild. Inbred orcas are caused by two related family members mate. Most of the time, it is (likely) that these whales do not know they are related.

## Information

Inbred orcas can cause family trees to mix up weirdly in a confusing way. This is seen in Nalani, as her mother is Katina and father is Taku. However, she’s half siblings with Trua, and this is because they share the same fathers, but different mothers. This same thing happens with any other inbred orca calves. Many other orcas have this same family tree, although because Nalani's father is Taku(who is her half brother), this makes her inbred. Taku later moved to another park because it was afraid he could injure the newborn.

Generally(in the wild), inbred orcas are born on accident, sometimes on purpose. There are those instances that male orcas will purposely stay with their pod for the benefit of it, but this increases the risk of inbreeding. For example, a male can accidentally or purposely mate with his mother if he stays with the pod. The reason this happens is because if the mature male doesn’t leave and his father or other males in the pod die or leave, this increases the risk of inbreeding as well as the son would be prompted to breed with his mother or other adult females in the pod to keep having calves.

You may ask, why would a young male stay with the pod when mature? They do this for benefits such as hunting, and not having the stress of finding a new pod. Research conducted by the North Gulf Oceanic Society and Center for Whale Research shows that in the resident killer population, only a few orcas are left breeding, and inbreeding is harming the population and the limited number of breeding whales harms the effective size of the population, and also harms the survival of the individual orcas of the Southern Resident population.

In the end, inbred orcas are a threat to orca populations in the wild, and if continued, could lead to the extinction of populations and types of orcas like the Southern Residents.

## Trivia

1. There are only 6 known inbred orcas to ever be born in captivity.
2. 3 inbred orcas are alive in captivity at the moment.

## Timeline

### 2002

20th of May - Shouka is moved to Six Flags Worlds of Adventure after she reached sexual maturity. It was afraid she would breed with her father, Kim II, at Marineland Antibes.

### 2004

July - Neocia gives birth to a miscarriage at MarineLand Ontario. The sire is Kandu VII, which is Neocia's father making her calf inbred.

1st of August - Neocia dies at MarineLand Ontario from an internal infection.

### 2006

Late April - Unna gives birth to a miscarriage or stillbirth at SeaWorld San Antonio. The sire is Keet, Unna's nephew(Kalina is her half sister, who is the mother of Keet).

18th of September - Katina gives birth to Nalani at SeaWorld Orlando. The sire is Taku, one of Katina's other calves.

### 2010

13th of October - Kohana gives birth to Adán at Loro Parque. The sire is Keto, one of Kohana's uncles(her mother, Takara, is Keto's half sister). She rejects Adán at birth, however.

### 2012

3rd of August - Kohana gives birth to Victoria at Loro Parque. The sire is Keto, one of Kohana's uncles(her mother, Takara, is Keto's half sister). She rejects Victoria at birth, however.

### 2013

16th of June - Victoria dies at Loro Parque from being fed to much milk formula(causing intestinal problems).

20th of November - Wikie gives birth to Keijo at Marineland Antibes. The sire is Valentin, one of Wikie's half brothers(their father is Kim II).

## Whales

A total of 6 confirmed births were a result of inbreeding. 2 have unconfirmed fathers.

### Neocia's Calf

* Date of Birth: July of 2004
* Status: Miscarried, July of 2004 (MarineLand Ontario)
* Gender: Unknown
* Father: Kandu VII\*
* Mother: Neocia\*
* Relatives: Kandu VII and Neocia are father and daughter.
* Neocia's calf is up to 25% inbred.
* Unfortunately, Neocia miscarried her calf in July of 2004, which was most likely the result of inbreeding. This caused the calf to not survive long enough until their birth.

### Unna's Calf

* Date of Birth: Late April, 2006
* Status: Miscarried/Stillborn, Late April, 2006 (SeaWorld San Antonio)
* Gender: Female
* Father: Keet
* Mother: Unna\*
* Relatives: Keet and Unna are aunt and nephew.
* Unna's Calf is up to 12.5% inbred.
* Unfortunately, Unna gave birth to a miscarriage or stillbirth sometime in late April of 2006, which was most likely the result of inbreeding. This caused the calf to not survive long enough until her birth.

### Nalani

* Date of Birth: 18th of September, 2006
* Status: Alive (SeaWorld Orlando)
* Gender: Female
* Father: Taku\*
* Mother: Katina
* Relatives: Taku and Katina are mother and son.
* Nalani is up to 25% inbred.
* Nalani showed no signs of being inbred and was the first inbred orca to survive a birth in captivity. Her father had to move parks, however.

### Adán

* Date of Birth: 13th of October, 2010
* Status: Alive (Loro Parque)
* Gender: Male
* Father: Keto
* Mother: Kohana\*
* Relatives: Keto and Kohana are niece and uncle.
* Adán is up to 12.5% inbred.
* Despite showing no signs of being inbred, Adán's mother, Kohana, rejected him at birth and he had to be raised by park staff.

### Victoria

* Date of Birth: 3rd of August, 2012
* Status: Deceased, 16th of June, 2013 (Loro Parque)
* Gender: Female
* Father: Keto
* Mother: Kohana\*
* Relatives: Keto and Kohana are niece and uncle.
* Victoria is up to 12.5% inbred.
* Despite showing no signs of being inbred, Victoria's mother, Kohana, rejected her at birth and she had to be raised by park staff. Unfortunately, Victoria passed away 10 months later from being fed to much milk formula at once.

### Keijo

* Date of Birth: 20th of November, 2013
* Status: Alive (Marineland Antibes)
* Gender: Male
* Father: Valentin\*
* Mother: Wikie
* Relatives: Valentin and Wikie are half brother and sister.
* Keijo is up to 12.5% inbred.
* Marineland Antibes never confirmed the father as they most likely didn't want to reveal that Keijo was inbred. He hasn't showed any known signs of being inbred and has down well with all pod members.

## References/Sources

1. ↑ "Mother & Calf Separations"
2. ↑ "Captive Orcas"
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Kohana Da A Luz A La Primera Orca Española"
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Comunicado de Loro Parque"