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Thursday, July 14, 2005
THE PROVINCE Latest News
Lora Grindlay, The Province
Beluga off to SeaWorld in San Diego Vancouver Aquarium mainstay
sent for breeding
Allua, one of the Vancouver Aquarium's beluga whales, is moving
to a new home at SeaWorld San Diego this month.
"She'll be missed," said Brian Sheehan, the aquarium's
curator of marine mammals. "She's got a great personality.
"What we want to do is give all the people that have got to
know Allua time to come down and say goodbye to her."
The 21-year-old female is going to SeaWorld on an indefinite breeding
loan.
It's hoped that Allua, who was captured in Churchill, Man., and
brought to the aquarium in 1985, will get pregnant at her new home.
She has shown little interest in the aquarium's male belugas.
"Sometimes different surroundings or different groupings of
animals can result in mating," Sheehan said. "For whatever
reason there hasn't been the interest between the males and Allua
here at the aquarium."
Despite never having given birth, 900-kilogram Allua is known as
a super mom.
She has been an enthusiastic helper with 17-year-old Aurora's calves.
She was an attentive caregiver to Qila, born in 1995, and disciplined
and even helped nurse two-year-old Tuvaq.
Sheehan said on moving day, which has not been determined, Allua
will be coaxed into a sling and hoisted by crane into a water-filled
crate fixed to a flatbed truck.
She will be driven to the airport and take the four-hour flight
to San Diego on a specially chartered airplane.
Five belugas will remain after Allua leaves.
Annelise Sorg of the Coalition for No Whales in Captivity was not
impressed.
"Is this what we want to continue doing -- breeding animals
for entertainment?
Allua is "a great beluga," Sorg said.
"She doesn't fight with anybody. She's just a sweetheart of
a beluga."
Nanuq, a beluga, was given to SeaWorld San Diego on a breeding
loan in 1997.
He has not sired any calves and has since been moved to SeaWorld
in San Antonio, Texas.
lgrindlay@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Province 2005
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