Hey everyone!

Hey everyone!
09-07-2008

Well, I've finally become part of a forum community again! My name is Brenna, and I live in southern Ontario about 45 minutes from the Toronto Zoo and an hour and 1/2 from Marineland Ontario. I visit the latter about once a month when they're open and visit the zoo about once or twice a year. My favourite exhibits are cetaceans and pinnipeds, but I love looking at all other animals as well.

I'm not too helpful when it comes to Toronto Zoo stuff, but I know quite a bit about Marineland's whales and dolphins. I know some people oppose marine parks like that, but I think that most take excellent care of their animals. I would never visit a place where they treated animals badly. (Trust me, I've turned down trips before.) Marineland's not perfect, but I don't think any zoo is.

I love drawing and photography and would be happy to share my art with you in the gallery I think I'll enjoy whatever time I spend here on ZooBeat - see you around!

09-07-2008

Hi Brenna,

welcome to zoobeat ! I'm very interested in whales and dolphins, too. I've heared, Marineland Ontario has a big group of Beluga whales, so can you tell me how many they keep and if they are breed this species ?

How many orcas they keep at Marineland , and can you post some pictures of the exhibits for them ? Which other species, pinnipeds for example, do you the keep ?

Unfortunately, we have no whales anymore here in Germany, Duisburg has send the last beluga whale and the last commerson dolphin to Seaworld San Diego a few years ago, so we have only bottlenose dolphins in three zoos and one funpark.

We have a lot of trouble here with animal righteners, which wants to close all dolphinariums here. Nuremberg zoo wants to start build a new, huge and very natural outside pool for the dolphins, but many people in Nuremberg tries to stop them.

But I think, they have no chance.

Three years ago, I've visted the Toronto Zoo, good Zoo, very huge, I like it. They have a good collection of rare species.

09-07-2008

Hi Brenna,

I've posted some pictures of the beluga whales, jacobitas and the river dolphin at Duisburg zoo in the gallery, so look under " Zoo Duisburg" and you will find the pictures. There are some nice pictures of the last river dolphin in the new exhibit, which I've seen not yet, so I have only a picture in the old exhibit. This amazon river dolphin is the last one outside of southamerica, and there is just one zoo with this species, Valencia.

This animal is very old, it came fully grown in 1975 to Duisburg !

09-07-2008

EDIT - I just saw your second post - I'll definitely take a look! I have some deviantart friends whom I get duisburg updates from - it looks a great zoo! I actually saw Duisburg's old beluga whale at Sea World San diego last summer. I'd also love to see Baby someday (unlikely though, if I ever went to Germany it wouldn't be to see dolphins)

Zebra, I'd be happy to tell you about the Marineland crew The pinnipeds they have are california sea lions, walruses, and I think a few harbour seals behind the scenes. Not sure about the last ones though.

The three orcas Marineland keeps are Kiska, who was captured in 1979 and is in her early 30s, Athena, her daughter who was born in 2004 and the only surviving orca calf born at Marineland (their breeding program was really unsuccessful, sadly), and Ikaika, my favourite, who came from Sea World Orlando November 2006 and was born in 2002.

Yep, Marineland has a crazy number of belugas, and they're doing much better with them than with the orcas. A calf was actually born this past Sunday, bringing the number up to 25!

Marineland also has 8 black sea bottlenosed dolphins. My main beef with Marineland is that they've captured a lot of their animals recently. (All except one of the dolphins was captured in the past eight years, and most of their belugas came around that time too.) Five of the dolphins perform in a little show a few times a day, all female. The two males and Maya, who was born in 2003, are kept behind the scenes. A new indoor tank is in the works for the dolphins.

I'll be visiting the park next week or the week after, so I'll post pictures from then. Hope I answered your questions well enough

09-07-2008

Welcome here and enjoy it !

__________________
www.zooantwerpen.be & www.planckendael.be
www.zoocrew.eu

09-07-2008

Hope, "Ferdinand"is doing well at Seaworld. Do you if he has mated with some of the females, or is he probably to old for that ?

Walrusses are great animals, unfortuantely, all walrusses in german zoos died recently, the last one last year, an old female namend "Tanya" at the Hannover Zoo.

Hagenbeck plans now to build a new polar exhibit and I think, they try to get again walrusses. This Zoo has had a lot of walrusses in his history, but never bred them.

Do you know the Dolphinarium Harderwijk in the Netherlands ? You would like that place, they have a very good collection of dolphins and pinnipeds, they have bred walrusses third times and raised two of them successfully, the third calf was raised also, but it died a few month later.

They opned a new and huge new exhibit with a great underwater viewing for the walrusses in 2005, but I have not seen it, only from pictures, but it looks great. They have now 6 walrusses, I hope, they will bred them again.

How many wlarusses has the Marineland ? And od they keep all the belugas together in one group, or they are keeping them in diffrent groups ? Are all of them on exhibit ?

There is a new Oceanrium in Valenica, Spain, which was opend in 2005 and its one the biggest aquariums in europe ( of course they say, they are the largest aquarium, but any new aquarium in europe says that ). They are keeping beluga whales and had a first calf in 2006, but it died a few days later. And tehy have wlarusses, but only young animals and they can not breed at this time.

09-07-2008

I would love to see the dolfinarium hardwijk (however you spell it XD) I think Marineland has about seven walruses but only three of them are on display. The others either perform in the crappiest marine show in the history of forever or are kept behind the scenes.

*sigh* Yep, all the belugas are out there at once. There's three decent-sized tanks, but they still need more room if they think they can keep breeding. They're a bit starved for space. Though I'm pretty sure belugas already live in big crowded groups in the wild. They all seem fairly happy and interactive, anyway, and most are willing to do their petting sessions. As for groups, the smaller med pol is usually where a male named Beyli lives, but he'll often have company. He's not sick, just aging a bit. There's also a nursery pool for new mothers and pregnant belugas, as well as some "aunt" females, and then the rest are in the third tank.

09-07-2008

Hi Brenna, welcome to zoobeat, thanks for your info and news, will marineland continue with killer whales they are down to 3 animals, will moe be brought in?
Do you have any news about any development work for the future?

09-07-2008

Thanks for the welcome, Kiang. Yes, Marineland is trying to continue their killer whale breeding. That's why Ikaika, the male, was brought in 2006 so when he grows up he can be Marineland's next orca stud. Kandu, the last adult male, died in 2005. I believe the older female will also be too old to breed by the time Ike's old enough too. so him and little Athena are the last hope. Ike's father is Tillikum though, the sire of of a dozen orca calves, most of whom are alive today - so his son will probably be pretty good at the baby thing. I'm worried about the calf, Athena, though - every one of her brothers and sisters died before their time.

The new development is a still hole in a ground, and has been since 2005. They need to hurry it up - the dolphin tanks are pretty inadequate. Very small.