Chimelong Ocean Kingdom Chimelong Killer Whale Holding Facility was set up

[Deer Forest]

Yesterday, the first Killer whale holding facility in China was set up in Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, Zhuhai.

Totally 9 killer whale lives here, including 5 males and 4 females, aged between 5 and 13. The largest one is 6.5 m long and weighs 4 t. While the smallest one is 4 m long and weighs 1.2 t.

Every day they take fish from 35 to 74 kg, on average 50 kg. The feed includes about 10 kinds of fishes and are imported from Canada, Norway and Australia.

About 30 staff take care of the killer whales, including international experts.

Chimelong says killer whales are highly social animals and live in matriarchal society. The 9 killer whales belongs to 2 social groups, so they were kept in two facilities.

The killer whale program of Chimelong is supported by China government, said Meng Xianlin, The Endangered Species Import and Export Management Office.

 

[FunkyGibbon]

Any data or pictures of the tanks Deer Forest?

 

[Deer Forest]

Any data or pictures of the tanks Deer Forest?

Sorry I did not find tank information.

 

[FunkyGibbon]

Sorry I did not find tank information.

No worries, let's just hope they built big! Seems like a little outing to Guangzhou may be in order

 

[Hyak_II]

I have pictures of the facilities and can post them a bit later. The pools are entirely indoors, but fairly spacious all things considering.

 

[Bib Fortuna]

Good News for Orca-Fans: Russia has given permission to catch 10 more Orcas in 2017!

 

[aardvark250]

Is the facility open for public yet?

 

[Loxodonta Cobra]

Here's a short article about the orca's:China's first killer whale breeding base put into operation in Guandong - Global Times

 

[Deer Forest]

Is the facility open for public yet?

I also want to know .

 

[aardvark250]

中国首个“虎鲸繁育基地”在珠海长隆正式启用_南方快报_南方网
Seems like they are still building the real exhibit for the orca.

 

[Daniel]

Good News for Orca-Fans: Russia has given permission to catch 10 more Orcas in 2017!

I hope this was a joke! Very sad news indeed

 

[FunkyGibbon]

People who aren't inclined to click on Chinese links may still want to go to page five to get a decent look at the facility.

中国首个“虎鲸繁育基地”在珠海长隆正式启用_南方快报_南方网

 

[MICHAELRG]

I'm working on aggregating every single photo of Chimelong's orcas into one place https://goo.gl/photos/sPhPLEYSeJMjNUrr7
The description for each photo has a link to the original source. For some I couldn't find the source. Also some are very low resolution so there must be higher resolution versions somewhere. If you find any additional images please add them to the album
Also feel free to share the link to the album the more people who can potentially add pictures the more comprehensive the album can be
In addition here's the location of the holding facility: https://goo.gl/maps/fxd9D9MeUF92

 

[Azamat Shackleford]

Personally, I'm conflicted. On one hand it's nice to have a new breeding foundation for the orcas, on the other hand, is there any way the orcas are being captured in a, per se, humane way? I don't think it'll all be great if they were captured and separated from their family pods, but that's just my cup of tea, and plus that'll give more fuel for the crazy animal rights extremists to rant on about.

 

[CGSwans]

Wild capture for any purpose other than ex-situ conservation is no cause for celebration.

 

[Azamat Shackleford]

Wild capture for any purpose other than ex-situ conservation is no cause for celebration.

Yeah, that's the point which isn't suiting my cup of tea. I'll just hope that those captured orcas at least are treated with care........

 

[Brum]

Wild capture for any purpose other than ex-situ conservation is no cause for celebration.

I agree with this in theory but if it wasn't for wild imports then aardwolves, aardvarks, certain civet species and countless other none-threatened species wouldn't still be in captivity.
Capturing highly social species for entertainment purposes alone is different though, certain cetaceans could be self-sustaining but these killer whales aren't likely to be a sound basis for a viable gene pool and even if they do breed extremely well there's an amazing lack of places looking to go in to them.

In summary I don't disagree with wild capture but in this circumstance I can't find any reason to support this decision.

 

[Azamat Shackleford]

^Basically what Brum said, I tend to twist my words up a lot

 

[Brum]

@Eublepharis It took me a while to phrase it properly as well.

 

[Shellheart]

these killer whales aren't likely to be a sound basis for a viable gene pool and even if they do breed extremely well there's an amazing lack of places looking to go in to them.

I agree they will not be a good basis for a population,but I also don't think they'll need to be one. Quite a few facilities are running into genetic bottlenecks or have overly small populations. Marineland France, Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium, Kamogawa Sea World, the new Linyi Polar Ocean Park (which at this point has only 2 orcas), Moskvarium,and Loro Parque. All these facilities have 5 or less whales,save for Loro Parque,and have given no explicit plans to end their breeding programs. In addition to this SeaWorld has said they'd continue to provide genetic material despite no in-house breeding,and Chimelong is now planning their own pod,as well as 2 or 3 facilities that are known to have some amount of orcas,but are keeping quiet (Dalian Laohutan Ocean World,Wuxi Changqiao Ocean Paradise) If (and that's a giant if) an international breeding cooperation were to be established for the species I think a fairly decent breeding program could get up and running,all without any real need for transfers or captures. It'd be in the best interest for these facilities. I agree that these captures weren't necessary,however.