Corky is a female captive orca (or killer whale) from the A5 Pod

A5 Pod

A5 pod is a name given to a group of orcas found off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. It is part of the northern resident population of orcas - a name given to the fish-eating orcas found in coastal waters ranging from mid-Vancouver Island up through the Queen Charlotte Islands of British...

 in British Columbia

British Columbia

British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. She currently lives at SeaWorld San Diego

SeaWorld San Diego

SeaWorld San Diego is an animal theme park, oceanarium, and marine mammal park, located in San Diego, California, United States. The park is owned by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, a division of The Blackstone Group....

 in California

San Diego, California

San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

. Corky (II) received her name after the park's original Corky died in December 1970. Of the other animals captured on that day, only Corky still survives. She is estimated to have been born in 1966 and it is believed that her mother is Stripe (A23), who died in 2000.

Life at Marineland

Corky was placed in a small pool with an adult male, Orky (II), also caught in Pender 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

Marineland of the Pacific

Marineland of the Pacific was a public oceanarium and tourist attraction located on the Palos Verdes Peninsula coast in Los Angeles County, California, USA. Architect William Pereira designed the main structure. It was also known as Hanna-Barbera's Marineland during the late 1970s and early 1980s...

, Corky became the first Orca to become pregnant and give birth in captivity. With her first calf, nobody even knew she was pregnant. 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 reasons 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. Though, 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.

Her time at Marineland ended in January 1987, after the park was sold to SeaWorld

SeaWorld

SeaWorld is a United States chain of marine mammal parks, oceanariums, and animal theme parks owned by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. The parks feature captive orca, sea lion, and dolphin shows and zoological displays featuring various other marine animals. There are operations in Orlando,...

. Corky, then pregnant for the seventh time, was moved with Orky to the park in San Diego

San Diego, California

San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

. There, at SeaWorld, Corky suffered a miscarriage

Miscarriage

Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the spontaneous end of a pregnancy at a stage where the embryo or fetus is incapable of surviving independently, generally defined in humans at prior to 20 weeks of gestation...

.

Life at SeaWorld

Corky and Orky were placed with the other Orcas at SeaWorld, in a system of pools much larger than those they had lived in at Marineland. Orky was desired primarily for SeaWorld's new successful breeding program, and while at SeaWorld he sired two female calves, Orkid and Kayla, both of which are still alive today.

Corky, on the other hand, never became pregnant again. Three days after the birth of his first daughter, Orky died. His daughter, Orkid, remains at the park today.

In 1987, Orky 2 along with another female named Nootka 4 were involved in an accident that injured trainer John Sillick. During a show for the public, Sillick was riding on Nootka's back when Orky received a signal to breach. Sillick's back, leg, and pelvis were broken when Orky landed on top of him; the accident was attributed to another trainer not realizing that Sillick was riding Nootka in the same area that Orky was instructed to breach. He was permanently disabled as a result of the attack, but it cannot be considered a case of orca aggression, rather just a miscue on the part of trainers.

In 1989, the dominant Orca at the park, Kandu V, attempted to rake Corky — a way orcas show dominance by forcefully scratching at another with their teeth. Kandu charged at Corky, attempting to rake her, she missed and continued swimming into the back pool, where she ended up ramming the wall, rupturing an artery in her jaw. The people in the stadium were quickly ushered out, and after a 45 minute hemorrhage, Kandu V died, all the while she swam alongside her 11 month old calf Orkid for the last portion of her life. Orkid, orphaned at only 11 months old, was placed with Corky, and the two remain together at the park to this day. They hold a very strong bond considering the fact that Corky became Orkid's surrogate mother after the death of Kandu. To this day, Orkid is very protective of Corky.

Today, Corky lives with five other Orcas: Kasatka, Ulises, Orkid, Nakai, and Kalia. Corky is one of the gentlest whales in captivity; when a trainer enters the water with a whale for the first time, the whale is always Corky. She loves to mother everyone and has adopted and partially raised quite a few whales since her move to SeaWorld: Orkid, of course, as well as Splash (now deceased), Sumar and others. Corky gets along with all of the whales, except for Ulises, who for unknown reasons will try to rake her when they're together.

Corky is easily identified thanks to her tall, straight dorsal fin, her pointed eyepatches, and most distinguishing, her large size for a female. She also tends to swim upside down in the pools.

Corky today

Corky is now approximately 45 years old. She has lived in captivity for over 40 years. She suffers from cataracts in her right eye, though it does not seem to impair her daily activities. She still performs regularly in shows, under the stage name Shamu

Shamu (SeaWorld show)

Shamu is the stage name given to the SeaWorld orca shows and to the "star" of those shows, beginning with the original Shamu in the late 1960s and early 1970s...

.

Further reading

• Ford, John K.B.; Ellis, Graeme M.; & Balcomb, Kenneth C. (2000). Killer Whales (2nd ed.). UBC Press. ISBN 0-7748-0800-4.
• Hoyt, Erich. (1990). Orca: The Whale Called Killer (3rd ed.). London: Robert Hale Limited. ISBN 0-920656-25-0.
• Morton, Alexandra. (2002). Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us New York: Ballantine Publishing Group. ISBN 0-345-43794-2.
• Patryla, Jim. (2005). A Photographic Journey Back To Marineland of the Pacific Lulu Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4116-7130-0.