Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Born free, free as the wiiiind blows...

Today in 1985 the first Baby Shamu was born. Well, the first ‘Shamu’ to survive was born - there were ten orca calves born in captivity before that, but they all died before they reached two months.

There are various aspects to the whole Shamu experience that I don’t get. A magnificent creature who’s super-smart with complex language skills jumps up in the air, and we think that’s the cool bit. Apart from the vastly reduced life expectancies and the forced social groupings, the poor guys suffer the ignominy of performing in Shamu Hollywood Night Magic and Shamu the Yankee Doodle Whale.

Anyway, happy birthday Shamu. And commiserations…

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