Taima (whale)

Taima is a transient/Icelandic hybrid female Orca who lives at Sea World Orlando in Florida. Her name means crash of thunder in the Icelandic language. She was born tail-first around 16:45 EST during a thunderstorm.

Early years

Taima was born on July 11, 1989 to mother Gudrun and father Kanduke. In 1990, Kanduke died at the age of 20 from a stomach ailment; Gudrun gave birth to Taima's half-sister Nyar in 1993. Nyar suffered frequent illness and it was reported that Gudrun tried to drown her during several shows. Trainers believe that this confused Taima, as she witnessed this and thought this was how to raise a calf. She was later reported to have performed this on her own calves, Sumar, Tekoa, and Malia. Gudrun died in 1996 from stillbirth-complications, and Nyar died from an illness a few months later in April.

Motherhood and current status

On May 14, 1998, Taima gave birth to a male calf named Sumar. They were separated when he was about eight months old because of the aggression between them. On one occasion while performing, Taima started biting Sumar, and throwing him out of the pool, onto the trainer’s platform. The then slid out herself and started biting him. The show was stopped, and Taima was pulled to the other swimming pool. A few months later Sumar was transferred to SeaWorld San Diego in California.

On November 8, 2000, at 3:47 pm, Taima gave birth to a baby boy, named Tekoa. He began feeding overnight and was estimated to be 7 feet (2.2 m) long and weigh 350 pounds (159 kg). During the birth, Kalina assisted Taima and helped the calf to the surface for its first breath.

The two were separated after only nine months due to aggression between them. It was reported that Tekoa was swimming with Katina and Taima began to display signs of aggressive dominance and went after Tekoa. Katina, the dominant female at the park, became involved by trying to protect Tekoa. Taima then attacked Katina whom was pregnant at the time, which caused her immense physical and psychological stress nearly causing a miscarriage. Teoka was sent to SeaWorld San Antonio in 2005, and was later sent to Loro Parque in Spain in February 2006. After Tekoa's attack, Taima was separated from all other whales except Tilikum, until she gave birth again in 2007.

Taima became pregnant again in early 2006 and gave birth to her third child and first daughter, Malia, on March 12, 2007. Though many became worried after noticing bumps and scratches on Malia's body, especially one particularly noticeable one that appeared a month later on her melon, Taima has proved to be a very nurturing and mature mother to Malia. There have been no reported incidents between mother and calf. Malia was shortly introduced to her father Tilikum, and the three preformed together within a few months of Malia's birth. Across the next two years, Taima and Malia have been introduced to all the other whales except for Katina. She was first housed with Takara and Trua for over a year, in which Taima began to act up and stop shows, and then later met Kayla and was reintroduced to Kalina. These new social opportunities also affected Taima's former tankmate Tilikum, who more recently has been grouped with his grandson Trua and Trua's mother Takara.

Family members/breed

• Mother: Gudrun*
• Father: Kanduke*
• Grandmothers: T7/Innis
• Sisters: Katerina* (half) and Nyar* (half)
• Daughters: Malia
• Sons: Sumar and Tekoa
• Undetermined Offspring: 2005 miscarriage calf with Tilikum
• Aunts: T7B/Spiller
• Uncles: T7A/Arrow
• Cousins: T7B1 and T7B2
• Possible Relatives: Nootka III* and Kenau*
• Breed: 50% Icelandic and 50% Transient

(Asterisk indicates a deceased relative)