Taku (whale)
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Taku is a male killer whale, born at Seaworld in Florida. After birth, he spent most of his time, being with Katina or Nyar, his half-sister. After 3 years of his mothers' care, she gave birth again. When his little sister was born he was very interested and since that moment they were inseparable! Mostly Unna, Katina and Taku were in a tank, doing laps together. On August 25, 2002 Katina gave birth again. He became nervous and had to be moved into another tank. Unna was later moved to SeaWorld Texas in December of 2002 and since then, Ikaika and Taku started bonding. Ikaika even can swim in mother-calf-position with Taku.
[edit] Date of birth and family members
MOTHER: Katina
FATHER: Tillikum
DATE OF BIRTH: September 9, 1993
SISTERS: Kalina (half), Katerina (half), Kohana (half), Unna, Nyar (half), Skyla (half), Nalani
BROTHERS: Ikaika, Kyuquot (half), Sumar (half), Tekoa (half), Tuar (half), and Nakai (half)
OFFSPRING: Trua
TRANSFERS: Sea World Texas (November 18th, 2006)
MATE: Takara
BLOOD TYPE: 100% Icelandic
[edit] Meeting Takara
When Takara and her daughter Kohana arrived at Sea World, Taku took some romantic interest in her. At first, Takara would swim away from him when he was too close to him but later took romantic interest in Taku and began to be close to him. Takara had made a good impression on Taku - love at first sight! Visitors were commenting on Taku's persistence in following Takara and Kohana everywhere after their arrival. Now things have settled down a bit and Takara actually enjoys Taku's company a lot. She would often initiate contact with him by swimming with him or just rubbing. They're a cute couple. Soon Taku mated with Takara in May 2004 and she became pregnant by him.
[edit] Birth of Taku's son Trua
On November 23, 2005 around 21:50 EST (4:50 PM), Takara went into labor with her second calf with her daughter Kohana beside her. An hour later around 22:22, Takara gave birth to a male calf (Taku's son/first calf) who was later to be named Trua.
