Gender: FemalePod: N/APlace of Capture: Seyðisfjörður, IcelandDate of Capture: October

Gender: FemalePod: N/APlace of Capture: Seyðisfjörður, IcelandDate of Capture: October 1987Age at Capture: Approx. 1 yearCurrent Location: Port of Nagoya AquariumSometime in October 1987, a group of four Orcas were captured in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland. They were immediately transferred to the Hafnarfjordur Aquarium where they were trained and put up for sale.The following year in March 1988, all four were purchased by Kamogawa Sea World; known as Bubba, Maggie, Oscar, and Stella. When they arrived, they met the resident male, Bingo, who had been captured in 1984. They were all trained for waterworks and soon began performing in shows together.However, Bubba was sold to Ocean Park in Hong Kong in 1989, and Maggie died in 1997 due to birth complications. This left just Stella, Bingo, and Oscar until 1998, when Stella gave birth to her first calf at 12 years old, a female named Lovey sired by Bingo. Lovey was the first surviving captive born calf in Japan.Stella gave birth to her second calf in 2001, another female named Lara who was also sired by Bingo. Two years later, in 2003, Stella gave birth again to a third female named Sarah sired by Bingo. It was thought Sarah was a male at first, but staff were soon able to properly determine her sex.In February of 2006, Ran II was born to Stella and Bingo, and would be the fourth female produced by the pair. However, in April of the same year, Sarah died due to unknown causes a month shy of her 3rd birthday.Sometime in 2007, Bingo, Stella, and Ran II were moved to the back pool in preparation for Lovey’s first calf, Earth, who was born in 2008 and sired by Oscar.By 2011, plans had been made to move Stella and Bingo to the Port of Nagoya Aquarium to join the female known as Nami, but the move was postponed after a Tsunami and the death of Nami.In December of 2011, Stella, Bingo, and Ran II were finally moved to the Port of Nagoya Aquarium, and Stella, who had been pregnant during the move, gave birth to her fifth daughter with Bingo in November 2012. The calf, known as Rin, was the first calf to be born at the Aquarium and is potentially Stella’s last calf, as Bingo recently died on August 2, 2014.Stella is described as a gentle whale, and has never been known to act aggressively towards other whales or her trainers, though her health and behavior has been questioned before. In 2011, videos of Stella, and others, repeatedly sliding up on the stage at Kamogawa Sea World appeared on YouTube; and on September 10, 2013, she sustained an injury to her dorsal, but the cause of the injury is still unknown.Today, Stella resides at Port of Nagoya with her daughters Ran II and Rin, and is approximately 29 years old.x | x | x | x | x | x | x -- source link

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