Is there a Narwhal in Captivity

This has been asked several times before (=> Search).

David Taylor remarked in one of his books that there have been attempts of keeping narwhales in captivity, among others in the UK in the 1960s. So far, no success anywhere.
 
I don't think it's recommended that they're kept, won't the walls of the pool do damage to their horns?
 
The last narwhals in captivity were an orphaned calf caught in the Grise fjord in Canada and airlifted to the New York aquarium, in around 1969/70, which died after a month.

The Vancouver aquarium at about the same time in 1970, captured 6 narwhal, and all 6 died within a few months.
 
A quote off wikipedia " Attempts to keep the narwhal in captivity have been unsuccessful. All narwhals that have been brought into captivity in the past have only lived for a few months."
 
Cat-Man said:
it would be nice to see them, aparrentley calgary zoo wanted them for there artic complex
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If you want to see them, go on a cruise to the arctic circle.

Honestly, if I saw narwhals in captivity I'd hardly think the thought of them probably dying in a few months after damaging their horns on the tank walls would strike me as 'nice'.
 
Some animals are not meant to be caged.....same can be said for killer whales or whale shark.....
 
dragon(ele)nerd said:
woh, hold on whale sharks are in captivity???
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Yes several whale sharks have been kept in captivity.
From 1980 -1998 the aquarium in Okinawa kept 16 whale sharks and i believe that they still have some now.
But keeping them in captivity is a controversial subject
 
It sure is. i didn't believe it when i first found out. they were kept in a 27X 12X 3.5 meter tank
 
Hawk said:
Yes several whale sharks have been kept in captivity.
From 1980 -1998 the aquarium in Okinawa kept 16 whale sharks and i believe that they still have some now.
But keeping them in captivity is a controversial subject
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The Okinawa Churaumi does still have whale sharks, and are attempting to try and breed from them. The Osaka aquarium Kaiyukan, also in Japan, houses a pair of whale sharks. I think the Georgia Aquarium, in the USA, still holds four whale sharks; and I think Atlantis, The palm (a hotel in Dubai) is still 'rehabilitating' a 'rescued' whale shark. I can't think of any more at the moment, but there are several controversial plans to bring in whale sharks in the next few years (most notably, at the new Singapore Oceanarium).
 
I swam with whale sharks in the wild in Mexico! It was amazing, Id rather see whale sharks in captivity than whales however! I imagine whale sharks as big goldfish but whales are on another level.
 
Hawk said:
Yes they have four young ones named Ralph, Norton, Alice and Trixie.
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Ralph and Norton died a while back (around 2007), but two new whale sharks (Taroko and Yushan) were brought in to replace them soon afterwards.
 
Hawk said:
It sure is. i didn't believe it when i first found out. they were kept in a 27X 12X 3.5 meter tank
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:eek::eek::eek:

well aquariums and zoos always want to keep big animals to pull visitors, this is the closest ( in term of size) to the whale, but convenient for the aquarium of course because of they don't have to come up for air.
 
The National Aquarium in Taiwan had 3 whale sharks 2 summers ago- they were quite small though (can't have been more than 8m in length; they were apparently by-catch from one of the fishing boats)
 
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