Corky (killer whale)

Corky (II) is a female captive orca (or killer whale) from the A5 Pod in British Columbia, Canada. She currently lives at SeaWorld San Diego in California. Corky (II) received her name after the park's original Corky died in December 1970. She has been in captivity longer than any other killer whale.

Corky was estimated to have been born in 1965. Her mother, designated A23, nicknamed 'Stripe', died in 2000. Around the age of four, Corky was captured in Pender Harbour off the coast of British Columbia on December 11, 1969. Corky, along with a young unnamed male and a young female later named Patches, were sold to Marineland of the Pacific, in Palos Verdes, California. Of the animals captured on that day, only Corky still survives.

Corky was placed in a small pool with an adult male, Orky (II), also caught in the Harbor the year before her own capture. The two orcas remained together at the park for the next 17 years.

During her time at Marineland, Corky became the first orca to become pregnant and give birth in captivity. While pregnant with her first calf, no one was aware of her pregnancy. On February 28, 1977, the first calf to be born alive in captivity was born at Marineland to Corky and Orky. The calf was a male and died after eighteen days.

Corky went on to give birth six more times while at Marineland. Kiva, the longest surviving calf, lived only a total of 47 days. There are several theories as to why Corky's calves did not survive. The first might be that she was captured too young to have learned how to properly take care of a calf. However, even after she went through training to teach her how to nurse, the calves continued to die. Another reason the calves died so young could be attributed to the shape of Marineland's pools — small circles. Corky had to continually push her calves away from the walls and could not properly present her mammaries to the calves so that they could nurse. It was not until 1985 that a captive orca, Katina, gave birth to a calf that survived infancy (Kalina, who died in 2010.)

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