Taima (pronounced tah-EE-mah) was a 20-year-old female hybrid killer whale who lived at SeaWorld Orlando. She was born there tail-first on the night of July 11th, 1989, during a thunderstorm. Her mother was Gudrun, an Icelandic killer whale, and her father was Kanduke, a West Coast transient killer whale, making Taima 50% Icelandic, 50% West Coast Transient. Taima passed away due to stillbirth complications on June 6th, 2010 at SeaWorld Orlando.
Birth & Early Life[]
On a stormy summer night in July 1989, Gudrun gave birth to her first calf, a female named Taima.[1] Although she had never raised a calf of her own, she was an excellent mother to Taima. Within a few months, the two began to perform together. They often spent time with Katina, Kalina, and Katerina. When Taima was young, she had gone through several stages of playing with gates, poor separations, and a tendency to mouth trainers. As she matured, these behaviors became less frequent. [2]
In 1993, Gudrun gave birth to a mentally & physically disabled calf, Nyar. She had several birth defects and struggled to swim on her own, making her a very needy calf to her mother. Likely due to her disabilities, Gudrun attacked and attempted to drown Nyar. Taima, just four years old at the time, was there to witness the attack. It's possible that this event caused Taima to have problems with her own calves later on.
Gudrun's Death[]
On February 21st, 1996, Gudrun went into labor with a stillborn calf. But after hours of labor, Gudrun hadn't delivered the calf's body. Staff decided to pull the calf out with a winch, which caused Gudrun to hemorrhage severely. After many days of lying motionless in the pool and refusing food, Gudrun went to the gate separating her from Nyar and nuzzled her daughter in through the bars. A few hours later, Gudrun passed away from stillborn complications; leaving Taima without a mother.
Life at SeaWorld Orlando[]
After Gudrun's passing, who had been the matriarch of SeaWorld Orlando for many years, Taima took over as co-matriarch alongside Katina. Though at times, Taima would also assume the dominant role over Katina and displace the other whales in her environment, which led to multiple social conflicts. This occurred until she was eventually separated from that particular social group.
In May 1998, Taima gave birth to her first calf sired by Tilikum, a male named Sumar. Although she successfully nursed and cared for him the first few months, she began to display aggressive behavior toward him. Some behaviors included raking, chasing, pinning, and beaching him. They were eventually separated, and in March 1999, Sumar was moved to SeaWorld San Diego when he was nine months old.
On November 8th, 2000, Taima gave birth to her second calf, also sired by Tilikum. The young male was named Tekoa, and for the first few months, things seemed normal. However, Taima became increasingly aggressive towards him like she did with Sumar. This led to their premature separation in August 2001. After Taima was separated from Tekoa, her behavior became inconsistent. Since she had now become behaviorally unpredictable, all waterworks were discontinued with Taima. She was also put on birth control around this time.
Taima and Tilikum. Photo provided by SeaWorld.
From January 2002 until 2003, Taima was only paired with Tilikum. At some point in 2003, there was an attempt to reunite her with Tekoa and the rest of the pod. However, the attempt was unsuccessful. In May 2004, Tekoa was moved to SeaWorld San Antonio. That summer, Taima spent the majority of her time alone, with very little access to the front pool and an exclusion from shows; aside from a few “Dine with Shamu” presentations. During that time, trainers focused on strengthening their relationship with her. The results were positive, and Taima's behavior towards trainers improved. After another unsuccessful attempt to reunite Taima with the pod, she was solely grouped with Tilikum the following years.
Despite being on birth control, Taima conceived her third calf with Tilikum in 2005. On March 12th, 2007, she gave birth to her first female calf named Malia. Less than a month after her birth, the pair was introduced to Takara and her calf Trua. The social grouping improved Taima’s mothering skills dramatically, and although she occasionally had to be separated from Malia when overwhelmed, she showed good maternal instincts toward her. Malia began appearing in shows alongside Taima when she was as young as a week old. Around that time, the two were also introduced to Tilikum. [3] He seemed unsure about the new calf at first, but the three got along well and could be seen together in and out of shows.
In February of 2009, Takara was moved to SeaWorld San Antonio. Following the transfer, Taima, Malia, and Trua were reintroduced to Katina, Nalani, Kalina, and Kayla. This was the first time all seven whales had been together in one pod. This was also the first time Taima had been introduced to Kayla. Taima performed regularly with the pod, but despite her improved behavior, waterworks with her were still suspended. [2]
Death[]
In the late hours of June 5th, 2010, Taima went into labor with her 4th calf. Before this, she had delivered all three of her calves without issues. This time though, the calf was in an unusual position in the birth canal. Taima had also delivered the placenta before her calf, further complicating the labor. She had difficulty expelling her calf, which began to cause a uterine prolapse; a stretching of the ligaments supporting the pelvic organs, causing them to "drop down". SeaWorld veterinarians attempted to help assist in the delivery, but the complications were too severe to intervene. After 24 hours of hard labor, she finally delivered her stillborn calf. Taima later died from the birth complications; very similar to how her mother Gudrun died. The calf was also sired by Tilikum.
Personality[]
Like her mother Gudrun, Taima spent an extended amount of time at the surface resting. She would often get agitated when any of her calves interfered with her rest time and had to be separated from Malia when overwhelmed. Although she had a history of aggression in her years of waterwork interactions, they were extremely rare with appropriate trainer communication and decisions. Taima was a very dependable, full-show animal.
Behavioral Incidents[]
Although Taima had a history of aggression in her years of waterwork interactions, even precursors to aggression were extremely rare with appropriate trainer communication and effective behavioral decisions. Taima had shown frustration and aggression towards trainers. Her unpredictable nature led to waterwork with her being postponed indefinitely, and trainers were limited to drywork only.
Trivia[]
- The origin of Taima's name is inaccurately attributed to Native American languages on several websites. The possible reasoning for this incorrect relation to Indigenous culture is explained on NativeLanguages.org:
"Baby name books claim [Taima] means... '[crash] of thunder...' It certainly does not have this meaning in Blackfoot or Navajo, and we are unaware of any other Native American language in which it does. However, there was a historical figure from the Meskwaki Indian tribe whose name in English was spelled Chief Tama or Chief Taimah (shortened from his Meskwaki name, Te:wame:ha.) Although this is not the Meskwaki word for "thunder" (which is nenemehki), Chief Tama did belong to the Thunder Clan, so perhaps he is the origin of this name. Another possibility is that Wikipedia claims the word 'taima' means 'crash of thunder' in the Icelandic language." [4]
- Taima is often associated with thunderstorms due to the (incorrect) origin of her name. Often, it will storm in Orlando on the anniversaries of her birth and death. Many of her fans consider this to be an indicator of her "presence remaining" at SeaWorld.