Ulises (also spelled Ulysses) (born ) is a male

orca The orca (''Orcinus orca''), or killer whale, is a toothed whale and the largest member of the oceanic dolphin family. The only extant species in the genus '' Orcinus'', it is recognizable by its black-and-white-patterned body. A cosmopol ...

who lives at

SeaWorld San Diego SeaWorld San Diego is a theme park in Mission Bay Park in San Diego, California. It is a marine mammal park, oceanarium, public aquarium, and marine animal rehabilitation center. SeaWorld, the theme park's proprietor, is owned and operated by Un ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. He was captured off the coast of

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

in 1980 and is currently the oldest male orca in captivity as of 2022.

celebrates his birthday on 2 January every year.

Capture and early life

Ulises was captured on November 7, 1980, at Reydarfjördur, Iceland, when he was approximately 3 years old. He was taken to Sædýrasafnið, also known as the Hafnarfjörður Aquarium, in Iceland, a facility in which orcas recently captured from Iceland were housed while they adjusted to captivity. After spending around a month in Iceland, Ulises was sold to a private zoological company in

Tarragona Tarragona (, ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in Catalonia (Spain). It is the capital and largest town of Tarragonès county, the Camp de Tarragona region and the province of Tarragona. Geographically, it is located on the Costa Daurada ar ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, Río León Safari.

Life in Spain

Ulises spent two years at Río León Safari before they became unable to take care of him properly. He was taken in by the

Barcelona Zoo Barcelona Zoo (''Parc Zoològic de Barcelona'' in Catalan, ''Parque Zoológico de Barcelona'' in Spanish) is a zoo in the Parc de la Ciutadella in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The zoo used to be internationally known as the home of Snowflake, ...

in July 1983. In

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, he was housed with

bottlenose dolphin The bottlenose dolphin is a toothed whale in the genus ''Tursiops''. They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus contains three species: the common bot ...

s, and became popular with guests. Over time, Ulises began chewing on his tongue, chasing the dolphins he shared his tank with, and attempted to bite his tank cleaners. Zoo Barcelona decided in November 1992 to send him to SeaWorld San Diego for a number of years while a new, larger tank could be built. Animal rights activists protested the decision, and lobbied to have him returned to Iceland and released. Eventually, it was decided to send Ulises to SeaWorld permanently, and he was shipped out on February 9, 1994.

Life at SeaWorld

At SeaWorld, Ulises was introduced to the rest of the park's orcas. He showed aggression towards female '' Corky'', and the two were not allowed to be present in the same pool without the presence of more dominant female ''

Kasatka Kasatka ( – 15 August 2017) was a female orca who was captured from the wild in 1978, and kept at SeaWorld San Diego. Life Kasatka was captured off the southeastern coast of Iceland on 26 October 1978, with another young female whale named K ...

''. Ulises was the largest orca at

until ''Ikaika'' surpassed him in size in late 2021. Ulises measures 21 feet long and weighs in at 9,800 pounds as of January 2022 Originally, waterwork (behaviors in which trainers are present in the water with the orca) was performed with Ulises, but it was halted in 2006 after a series of behavioral incidents. In 2008, trainers began making attempts to reintroduce waterwork to Ulises, but waterwork at all SeaWorld parks was permanently halted after the death of

Dawn Brancheau Dawn Therese Brancheau ( LoVerde, April 16, 1969 – February 24, 2010) was an American animal trainer at SeaWorld. She worked with orcas at SeaWorld Orlando for fifteen years, including a leading role in revamping the Shamu (SeaWorld show) ...

in 2010. Ulises was trained to provide semen samples for use in

artificial insemination Artificial insemination is the deliberate introduction of sperm into a female's cervix or uterine cavity for the purpose of achieving a pregnancy through in vivo fertilization by means other than sexual intercourse. It is a fertility treatment ...

. On 16 March 2011, ''

Wikie Wikie (born 1 June 2001) is a female Orca who lives at the Marineland of Antibes in Antibes, France. Her mother was ''Sharkane'' (1985 – 3 January 2009) and her father was ''Kim II'' (1981 – 23 November 2005). Her elder sister is ''Shouka'' ...

'' at

Marineland of Antibes The Marineland of Antibes was a theme park founded in 1970 by Count Roland de La Poype in Antibes (Alpes-Maritimes), in the French Riviera. It included a marine zoological park with dolphinarium, a water park (''Aquasplash''), a children's pla ...

gave birth to a calf, a male named ''Moana'' sired by Ulises through artificial insemination. It was the first successful orca artificial insemination in Europe. In 2014, SeaWorld announced that Kalia was pregnant. She had both mated naturally with Ulises and been artificially inseminated with his sperm, and the park was unsure which method had gotten her pregnant. On 2 December 2014, Kalia gave birth to her calf, Amaya.

References

{{Reflist Orcas from SeaWorld 1977 animal births

Capture and early life

Life in Spain

Life at SeaWorld

See also

References