Ramu III (Winston)

Ramu III (known as "Ramu," and later renamed "Winston") was an Orca ("killer whale") who resided at the now-defunct Windsor Safari Park in Berkshire, England between 1970 and 1976, and later, at SeaWorld San Diego in California between 1976 and 1986. An adult male, Ramu (actually Ramu III) was caught on August 8, 1970, after his pod of eighty orcas was 'corralled' in Penn Cove, near Coupeville, Washington, USA (six others were also caught, while four died and the remaining sixty nine escaped capture). At capture, Ramu was 13.32 ft (4.06 m) long and a member of the Southern Resident Killer Whales' L-pod. It is assumed his family members still survive in the Salish Sea and in nearby Pacific coastal waters.

Ramu was then transferred to Windsor Safari Park, where he became the star attraction in the park's Sea World exhibition, (not to be confused with the American SeaWorld, where he would later move) splashing people with the beating of his tail against the water, along with a small number of dolphins, with whom Ramu cohabited. Over the next six years, Ramu matured into a bull Orca and began to outgrow the relatively small tank at the safari park. In October 1976, Ramu was sold to SeaWorld San Diego in a swap that saw two female Orcas (named Winnie and Hoi Wai) move in the other direction. To avoid confusion with another Orca named Ramu that already lived at Seaworld San Diego, Ramu was renamed Winston, although he inevitably performed under the stage name Shamu, (used for most performing whales at SeaWorld, after the first whale kept there.)

As a fully grown male, Winston now dwarfed even his pool mates, his size distinguishing him almost as much as his dorsal fin, which flopped over to his left hand side and made him instantly recognizable to visitors to the park. He courted and mated with several females at the park, impregnating Kandu V, Kenau and Katina. Katina was the first to give birth, on September 26, 1985, to a healthy young female Orca named Kalina (the first of the 'Baby Shamu' generation of whale calves). In January 1986, both Kenau and Kandu V lost their babies, Kenau's dying of a heart defect 11 days after birth and Kandu's being stillborn.

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