Artificial Insemination
The concept of AI has been around for over 100 years, yet AI
in cetaceans is relativity a new thing. The first successful births were born on
the same day, May 12 2001, at a marine park in China called Ocean Park. This
park of course was not alone in this process but was in collaboration with
SeaWorld. But even before SeaWorld began their project on killer whales. They
weren’t the first to try it on orcas. Calypso and Cuddles were the first
female and male killer whales that took part in the first ever trials for AI,
even though they weren’t sucessful.
SeaWorld’s project began much later in 1991, went
through a lot of trials and errors as they learned what temperature to keep the
sperm, the ovulation cycle of both bottlenose dolphins and killer whales and the
best way to do the process. The first female killer whales that took part
this study lived in the SeaWorld parks and the donor male lived in SeaWorld of
Florida. The females were Kasatka, Haida2, Kayla, Orkid, Taima and Takara and
the male was Tilikum. Kasatka was the first to conceive and gave birth to Nakai
on September 1, 2001. The second one to give birth was Kasatka’s daughter
Takara, and she gave birth to Kohana on May 3, 2002. Artificial
Insemination allows a park to breed their animals without moving a male or a
female to a particular park and hoping that they breed. It also allows the
genetic diversity to spread and grow. The process seems simple enough, but it is
far more complicated then it appears.
Artificial Insemination allows a park to breed their animals
without moving a male or a female to a particular park and hoping that they
breed. It also allows the genetic diversity to spread and grow. The process
seems simple enough, but it is far more complicated then it appears.
The male has to be trained to ejaculate on command. This
is done by first training the male killer whale to present his penis, the next
step is use an artificial vagina (AV) to stimulate the male so he ejaculates and
then the semen is collected. With killer whales there is a further step where
the AV isn’t used and the whole behavior is to ejaculate into a semen
collection bag. From there the collection is diluted before being frozen at a
temperature of 39.2 Degrees (4 Celsius). Then an hour before insemination occurs
it is placed in water that is 95 Degrees (35 Celsius) for 30 seconds.
For the female she is
trained to present her genital area and allow a 35-inch (90cm) long tube at a
width of 1.18 inches (30mm) to enter into her vagina. A camera is place on the
outside to record the procedure. The whole insemination process takes about
12-15 minutes but the females are trained to hold their breath for 20 minutes.
The female is then closely monitored and urine samples are taken to determine if
the AI was successful. 
Artificial insemination procedure
information about killer whales was gathered from Dr Todd Robeck’s paper
titled: Artificial insemination in killer whales.
The concept of AI has been around for over 100 years, yet AI
in cetaceans is relativity a new thing. The first successful births were born on
the same day, May 12 2001, at a marine park in China called Ocean Park. This
park of course was not alone in this process but was in collaboration with
SeaWorld. But even before SeaWorld began their project on killer whales. They
weren’t the first to try it on orcas. Calypso and Cuddles were the first
female and male killer whales that took part in the first ever trials for AI,
even though they weren’t sucessful.
