We’re back with another whale that isn’t in Sea World’s collection this week, and who is actually the daughter of one of our previous whales on this blog.
Just like some of the other non-Sea World whales, it has been quite hard to collate some information on this whale, so here’s hoping I manage to give you enough to get a feel for what she’s like. (hence the Blackfish cover being used for the banner image above – there are no copyright free images I can use)
Meet Lovey (yeah, that’s really her name…), a Japanese orca who is 18 years old.
Lovey’s Start to Life
Lovey was born at Kamogawa Sea World on the 11th of January, 1998 to Stella and Bingo. It took me a while to figure out that Bingo was also known as Thor for some reason – I thought I was going mad!
She was the first successful calf to be born in captivity in Japan, and has never moved from her place of birth.
Lovey was around for the birth of her three sisters, which gave her experience in how to raise and look after a calf. This knowledge was extremely beneficial for the birth of her first calf named Earth on the 13th of October, 2008. Earth was moved to the Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium two years later on the 7th of December, 2010.
For the birth of her second calf, her little sister Lara was present. Lara helped Lovey deliver her baby – who was later called Luna – on July 19th, 2010.
Lovey is intended to be a breeding whale, and has rumored to have started being trained for artificial insemination.
Her Temperament
Lovey is currently the matriarch at Kamogawa Sea World. She took over this title from her mother Stella who moved to Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium in December of 2011.
She is known for being an extremely loving whale and is incredibly gentle with other whales – even her trainers.
She’s also really intelligent and can perfom some of the most complex tricks with ease.
How To Identify Lovey
Lovey is quite easy to identify. She is only of the smallest whales at the park and her dorsal fin stands up quite tall, but it has a slight wave in the trailing edge and is starting to lean to the left.
Lovey has the taller fin, the other whale is Earth.
Her right eyepatch has a very smudgey outer edge and a prominent point near the eye. The left eye patch is quite long and extended and her flukes come to a very sharp looking point on the corners. The also has a single freackle on the right side of her body on the white patch near her fin.
Sadly, I couldn’t find any up to date weight or length measurements, so for this particular whale, I will have to leave you guessing – your guess is as good as mine!
It always upsets me when I can’t find much information on these whales. The whole point of this series is to educate you guys on the personalities of these captive orca; it makes it significantly harder when there’s not much information or images! I hope I did Lovey proud, and that you’ve learnt at least a little more about her than you previously knew.
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Excuse This Honesty 