Sunday, June 10, 2012

Cetacean Circus--Swifty Courtesy of Greg May



'Swifty' was the first false killer whale (Psuedorca crassidens) to ever be displayed and trained in captivity.
 
Her October 1963 capture by Marineland of the Pacific was only the second time this species had ever been sighted off Southern California.
 
During her six-year run at the world's most famous sea circus she amazed her trainers by learning the entire repertoir of the Whale Show by watching her tankmates.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I know of at least 2 Pseudorca's that were housed and trained at Seaworld on the Gold coast in my lifetime.
Cheers
Glenn

Bjorn said...

Here in the Netherlands we had three Pseudorca housed and trained at Dolfinarium Harderwijk. When the Killer Whale Gudrun had moved to Sea World, Sea World in return gave us Three Pseudorca wich came directly from Kamogawa Seaworld in Japan. These three animals died within a few years after their arrival.

Greg May said...

Yes, Keith Williams certainly did get in the act with psuedorcas in the late 70's. Now there was a piece of work! Not only did he 'borrow' the SEA WORLD name but he stole their logo as well!

Anonymous said...

Regarding the comment about Keith Williams, he was a champion boat racer who opened 'Surfer's Paradise Gardens' in the early 60's at the tip end of the Spit. In 1965 David. H. Brown left his post at Marineland of the Pacific to work for the newly-opened Marineland of Australia. Seeing the success of his next-door neighbor, Williams obtained some dolphins and put them in a pen directly in front of his ski show stadium and changed the name of his enterprise to Sea World - he even took their logo! He was a thorn in the American corporation's blubber for several years because apparently they did not have an international copyright on their name or logo. Sea World of Australia became so popular it put Marineland out of business; Williams not only purchased their animals but the park as well! Here is another example of a Sea World putting a Marineland out of business.