Are belugas disappearing from zoos?

DavidBrown

DavidBrown

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
In the Minnesota Zoo gallery dmanwarren recently posted a picture of the Minnesota Zoo beluga exhibit from 1978: http://www.zoochat.com/584/various-minnesota-zoo-70s-237331/

We were wondering why the Minnesota Zoo discontinued their beluga exhibit. Gerenuk said that the whales were removed because of health problems that needed to be treated at Seaworld. Does anybody know why the whole beluga exhibit was shut down at Minnesota Zoo? Was it decided that the exhibit was inadequate? They seem do be doing well with bottlenose dolphins so it seems like they have good marine mammal care.

The Point Defiance Zoo has also closed down their beluga exhibit.

Are beluga exhibits closing down in zoos and aquariums in general, and if so, why is this? I know that the Georgia Aquarium has a fairly new exhibit. Is this the last one that is likely to be built?
 
Vancouver Aquarium is tripling the size of their beluga whale exhibit by 2014 (funding and planning is already in place), even though there has been a series of 3 high-profile beluga deaths in the past 5-6 years. The Georgia Aquarium was of course built from scratch for around $250 million and change, but I wonder if you have a valid point when you ask if that establishment will contain the last new beluga whale habitat. I cannot imagine that there will be many more constructed in my lifetime.
 
Let's remember with Minnesota that the dolphins are not held in the same tank as the belugas were and both enclosures were built in different time periods (70s v. 90s). Its been over, what, 25 years since Minnesota had belugas?

With the Tacoma zoo it may very well be the costs associated with sourcing more belugas and maintaining them (especially in an antiquated pool that has its own rising costs) at a time when budgets are being cut.

So wouldn't it be difficult to associate a pattern with two events that occurred decades apart?

However, with that said, the captive breeding program for belugas in this country is not doing so well. Which is making it difficult to source belugas for exhibits. And not many are willing to associate with Marineland of Canada, who has a very active breeding program.

Beluga numbers in the US will dwindle if no further breeding occurs (such as walrus for example). And once the supply disappears, well so will the number of zoos/aquariums that hold them. Unless these facilities are willing to import more.
 
gerenuk said:
So wouldn't it be difficult to associate a pattern with two events that occurred decades apart?
Click to expand...

Good point. The part of this that I left out was what seems to be a rising wave (pun intended) of anti-cetaceans in captivity sentiment. snowleopard had mentioned in another thread that this is some vocal opposition to the expansion of the beluga pool at the Vancouver Aquarium and that protesters had shut down their orca program years ago. I was wondering if something similar was likely to happen if Omaha or some other zoo/aquarium decided that they wanted to build a beluga exhibit.

Are dolphin holding zoos at all concerned about anti-dolphin protesters challenging their facilities?
 
gerenuk said:
Let's remember with Minnesota that the dolphins are not held in the same tank as the belugas were and both enclosures were built in different time periods (70s v. 90s). Its been over, what, 25 years since Minnesota had belugas?

With the Tacoma zoo it may very well be the costs associated with sourcing more belugas and maintaining them (especially in an antiquated pool that has its own rising costs) at a time when budgets are being cut.

So wouldn't it be difficult to associate a pattern with two events that occurred decades apart?

However, with that said, the captive breeding program for belugas in this country is not doing so well. Which is making it difficult to source belugas for exhibits. And not many are willing to associate with Marineland of Canada, who has a very active breeding program.

Beluga numbers in the US will dwindle if no further breeding occurs (such as walrus for example). And once the supply disappears, well so will the number of zoos/aquariums that hold them. Unless these facilities are willing to import more.
Click to expand...

Why are zoos reluctant to associate with Marineland of Canada?
 
@David Brown: There really isn't an increase of anti-cetacean sentiment. Its seems to have plateaued in the US. You get the regular criticism from PETA and such groups, not much local noise. However there have been a few recent imports of cetaceans into the country (Sea World & belugas from Marineland Canada; Georgia Aquarium & dolphins from bermuda or bahamas). Many imports were discussed in the 1990s (Orcas, River Dolphins, etc.), but few happened due to the influence of a few anti-cetacean groups. Many zoos/aquariums probably just steer away from the whole issue now, unless they can source their cetaceans domestically.

Though Canada seems to be different with the decrease in the scope of Vancouver's expansion (it also had some "stop expanding into the park" sentiment) and the removal of Calgary's beluga exhibit. Canadians have always seemed very protective of cetaceans.

@sealion, here is some background information. Toronto News: The man behind Marineland: 50 years of controversy - thestar.com
 
sealion said:
Why are zoos reluctant to associate with Marineland of Canada?
Click to expand...

For several reasons.

1) Because they dont report when an animal dies, the only time anyone knows is when an animal no longer appears on display or it no longer appears on an inventory. They also often refuse to release causes of death.

2) They still catch many beluga from the wild in an age and country where that is frowned apon.
Heres a copy of the most recent inventory (PDF) Leaving Facebook... | Facebook

3) They have trouble keeping animals alive (orcas and belugas - look at their inventory reports. Belugas can live for 25 / 30+ years, yet only 4 of MLC's 39 belugas were born in the 90's the rest were born / wild caught in the last ten years)

4) They are obsessed with being known as a beluga park yet they dont have the room for so many. They pack them in the tanks so tight they can bearly move. Any benefit the quality and size of the habitat provides the belugas with is cancelled out by the fact they're packed like sardines. They can't engage in normal movement patterns or organise themselves into social groupings because there's no space

to give it a sense of perspective -
SeaWorld San Diego have 5 (4 wild caught 1 captive bred)
Mystic aqarium have 3 (2 wild 1 captive bred)
SeaWorld Orlando have 4 (all captive bred but 3 are from MLC)
Georgia Aqarium have 4 (all captive bred)
John G shedd have 8 (4 wild caught 4 captive bred)
SeaWorld Texas have 8 (4 wild and 4 captive bred)
Vancouver aqarium have 3 (2 wild and 1 captive bred)

Marineland Canada have a staggering 39 (not including the calfs of several pregnant females that are due any day) 27 of them are wild caught compared with 12 captive bred. If they cannot sustain a breeding program with that many animals and they have to keep getting new wild ones then something is drastically wrong.


5) They have a reputation for having bad managment. For example in the recent court case by SeaWorld to get MLC to return one of SW's orca whales (Ikaika). Some of the reason given by SW include the managers not letting trainers give the whales toys to play with, Marineland trainers are not allowed to attend IMATA meetings and as a result are not using the most current training methods, Marineland apparently does not have a scale to weigh the whales but claim to be looking into getting one and SW claim they are not feeding them enough food which is stunting growth.


I think all this and other reasons combined give the a general bad reputation and no one wants to be assocciated with them.
 
Thanks for the info, guys. I had not been aware of all these details! Seems like they have alienated themselves for no good reason!
 
I forgot to mention that MLC are responsible for two of the saddest killer whales deaths in captivity.

Nova - who had a hole in his throat which meant he couldn't digest his food properly and instead of putting him down they allowed him to slowly stave to death over 7 months in a back pool in 2001.

Junior - A young male who was caught from the wild and sent to MLC to be trained but as he was a naturally shy animal wh got bullied a lot by the other whales no other park wanted to buy him. As a result MLC put him in a TINY pool he could barly fit in, on his own, in a dark wharehouse at the back of the park until he died 4 years later in 1994.



You can see why no other park wants to be linked with them.
 
DavidBrown said:
In the Minnesota Zoo gallery dmanwarren recently posted a picture of the Minnesota Zoo beluga exhibit from 1978: http://www.zoochat.com/584/various-minnesota-zoo-70s-237331/

We were wondering why the Minnesota Zoo discontinued their beluga exhibit. Gerenuk said that the whales were removed because of health problems that needed to be treated at Seaworld. Does anybody know why the whole beluga exhibit was shut down at Minnesota Zoo? Was it decided that the exhibit was inadequate? They seem do be doing well with bottlenose dolphins so it seems like they have good marine mammal care.

The Point Defiance Zoo has also closed down their beluga exhibit.

Are beluga exhibits closing down in zoos and aquariums in general, and if so, why is this? I know that the Georgia Aquarium has a fairly new exhibit. Is this the last one that is likely to be built?
Click to expand...

The two belugas at Minnesota Zoo were named "Big Mouth" (Nukilik) & "Little Girl" (Anana), both were shipped to SeaWorld California on 26-April-1987. Little Girl died in 1989, Big Mouth had osteomyelitis and died from it in 1990.

Big Mouth the Whale Loses Battle With Disease - Los Angeles Times

The Point Defiance Zoo exhibited 2-3 belugas in the last few years. Beethoven, Turner & Qannik. Turner died in 2006, Qannik in 2009. Since Beethoven was alone it was decided to move him back to SeaWorld (where he was born), he was moved to Texas and then moved to Georgia Aquarium.

If you're interested in more information about belugas in captivity you might what to check out this doc:
http://www.ceta-base.com/library/cetabasedocs/captivebelugas_august2010.pdf

This page also lists all 73 living belugas in the US & Canada
Ceta-Base: Captive Belugas, Living Population - North America (Canada, United States & Mexico)
 
CetaBase said:
If you're interested in more information about belugas in captivity you might what to check out this doc:
http://www.ceta-base.com/library/cetabasedocs/captivebelugas_august2010.pdf

This page also lists all 73 living belugas in the US & Canada
Ceta-Base: Captive Belugas, Living Population - North America (Canada, United States & Mexico)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the very comprehensive information CetaBase. I guess that the answer to my question is "yes, belugas are disappearing from some zoos and aquariums, but there is still a large population".
 
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