Ramu III (Winston)

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Ramu III (known as "Ramu," and later renamed "Winston") was an orca "killer" whale) who resided at the now defunct Windsor Safari Park between 1970 and 1976 and later at Seaworld San Diego, California between 1976 and 1986. An adult male, Ramu (actually Ramu III) was caught on 8 August 1970 after his pod of eighty orcas was 'corralled' in Penn Cove, off Washington, USA (six others were also caught, whilst four died and the remaining sixty nine escaped capture). At capture, Ramu was 13.32 ft (4.06 m) long and a member of 'L pod' of Orcas. He was once a member of the L25 sub pod matriline, his mother was Ocean-Sun(L-25).

1 Windsor Safari Park
2 Seaworld San Diego
3 Ramu III (Winston)'s descendants
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Windsor Safari Park

Ramu was then transferred to Windsor Safari Park, where he became the star attraction in the park's Sea World exhibition, (not to be confused with Seaworld where he would later move) splashing people with the beating of his tail against the water, along with a small number of dolphins, with whom Ramu co-habited. Over the next six years, Ramu matured into a bull male orca and began to outgrow the relatively small tank at the safari park. So, in October 1976, Ramu was sold to Seaworld San Diego in a swap that saw two female orcas (named Winnie and Hoi Wai) move in the other direction. To avoid confusion with another orca named Ramu that already lived at Seaworld San Diego, Ramu was renamed Winston, although he inevitably performed under the stage name Shamu, (used for most performing whales at SeaWorld, after the first whale kept there.)

[edit] Seaworld San Diego

As a fully grown male, Winston now dwarfed even his pool mates, his size distinguishing him almost as much as his dorsal fin, which flopped over to his left hand side and made him instantly recognisable to visitors to the park. He courted and mated with several females at the park, impregnating Kandu V, Kenau and Katina. Katina was the first to give birth, on 26 September 1985, to a healthy young female orca named Kalina (the first of the 'Baby Shamu' generation of whale calfs). January 1986 saw bad news for Winston though, as both Kenau and Kandu V lost their babies, Kenau's dying of a heart defect 11 days after birth and Kandu's being stillborn.

Winston was not a failure by any means though. Kalina was the first calf conceived and born in captivity successfully and the success ushered in a generation of numerous orca births in captivity around the world. Indeed, both Kalina and her mother Katina are still alive at Seaworld Orlando, along with Kalina's own calfs Keet, (the first 'grandbaby' Shamu), Keto, Tuar and Sklya, as well as a stillbirth in 1997). In 2004, Keet had his first offspring, a female called Kalia, the first great grandbaby Shamu, making Winston a great grandfather. in 2005 Keet sired Halyn, his second offspring thus making Winston a great grandfather again.

Winston had done his bit for future captive orca development and died on 28 April 1986 of chronic cardiovascular failure. At the time of his last health checkup, Winston had been 7.4 metres long and weighed in at 5,443 kg. His age at death has been estimated as between 15 and 20 years of age. His family continues to grow.