Lifespan
- do they really live 50-100 years?
J2 Granny, famous as "the world's oldest whale". In reality, she was likely not much older than Corky or Lolita when she died in 2016.
Photo by Miles Ritter
Possibly the most stubborn myth about killer whales is that they live 50-100 years "on average" in the wild, while this is reduced to a measly 20-30 years in "captivity". Still some animal abolitionist organizations lower that number even more, claiming SeaWorld's whales die at an average of 9 years. This simply isn't true.
For the record - if I, or any other person today not opposed to the keeping of these animals, found that their lifespans were indeed drastically lowered in human care, I can speak for almost all of us and say we would be completely against the keeping of this species, since it would be so obviously detrimental for the animals.
The reason we don't oppose the keeping of them, is not because we are heartless people who don't care, but because we've looked at the facts, and the anti-aquarium/anti-zoo claims simply don't hold water.
One of the most important things to remember is how often and freely "average" and "maximum" are conflated. The reason for this may be that in humans, these numbers are fairly close. In many first world countries, humans live an average of 80 years (counting from birth), and this is also a fairly "ripe" age for a human, even though some have lived 40 years beyond this (a full 50% longer). 90 is more than most of us will see.
For another species we're closely familiar with, dogs, the average lifespan is about 11, and that is also quite an old dog. Not extremely old, as ages of 14-15 are not rare, and some have lived all the way to 29-30 (nearly three times longer than the average lifespan, and twice that of a truly old dog).
For beluga whales, I've read on various sites online such vastly different lifespans as "13-15", to "30-50", to "80+". All these were called "average" by each source. How could they possibly get such different numbers? It's quite simple - the first figure is their actual life expectancy at birth, because so many die in infancy. The other, is the normal lifespan for a beluga that survives to adulthood. The last, is a perceived maximum, and again, whoever wrote that conflated "average" with "maximum".
So we are comparing apples to oranges, to put it mildly. When anti-aquarium activists say killer whales in the wild live "50-100 years", while the ones at SeaWorld die at "20" or even "9", they are using completely different figures. For the first, they take a rare few whales believed to have reached an extreme age (more on that later), the perceived maximum lifespan, and for the latter, they include every dead juvenile and calf, every stillbirth, every miscarriage, and add them to an "average lifespan".
It goes without saying that including miscarried fetuses and dead embryos found during necropsies (Kona 2, Kenau, Samoa and Haida 2 all died pregnant) in a figure of "average lifespan", is absolute madness for any species or population, but it's the only way they could possibly have gotten to the figure of "9 years", unless they just plain made it up.
Corky 2, the oldest whale so far in human care, with a birth year of 1964/65, and caught in British Columbia in 1969.
She has lived at SeaWorld San Diego since 1987.
In reality, the actual life expectancy at birth is very similar in both human care and the wild.
When making comparisons between two groups, the most important thing to remember is to use the same rules for both groups. Otherwise, the result simply cannot be fair, or true, as explained with the example above.
Killer whales have been kept in human care continually since 1967 - with the first ever caught in 1961 (a sick, lone animal that died within days), 1964 (harpooned and kept in semi-fresh water) and 1965 (kept in a dirty bay pen). Since the average age of whales caught through the decades was very low, often 3-4 years (and sometimes as low as one), this means there are nearly no zoological killer whales born before the 1960s.
So by default, the wild whales to compare with should also start with those born in the 1960s.
Beyond that, wild whales (in British Columbia and Washington) were not studied at all until the mid-1970s. Before that, even the fact that there were different subpopulations with different social structures and feeding habits was unknown. This was a completely unstudied animal that had up until this point, only been viewed as a monster or a pest.
This is very important, because these wild Southern and Northern residents were simply not seen as newborns until the mid-70s (and for some more obscure pods, much later still).
That means that any whales born before then can't reliably be used in a comparison, because 1) their year of birth is an educated guess, at best (and impossible in an animal that was physically mature when first recorded), and 2) the other animals born in the same years as them - but died young - were never recorded.
This means that even using wild whales born in 1965-75 is very "shaky", but at least they could have their ages roughly estimated in the 70s, since they were young and still growing. And again, other calves born the same year as them that died, are simply unknown, so this skews the data unfairly.
Born before 1965-1960, meaning animals that were 15-20 years old or older when first recorded, their true ages simply cannot be known.
If you still need more explanation, let me use a hypothetical human example: Picture two towns, and we're going to compare life expectancy between them. Town A is hundreds of years old, it is known for a high infant mortality rate, and up until a couple of generations ago, there were no birth certificates or other records proving people's age. Still, we're including all the supposed 100+ year old peoples in our study, while of course other children born around their time are not on record anywhere (whether they died age 5, 20, or 80).
Town B is very modern, and was founded entirely off of people who were born in the 1960s or later. Naturally, some people have died since then, from injuries, accidents and illnesses. And of course - since no one is older than ~60 - not one person has died "of old age". Birth certificates and every single dead infant were recorded from the start.
How can these two towns be compared fairly, like this?
The only way to do it, is by eliminating everyone from Town A born before the 1960s, and only including individuals who were known from birth or early childhood.
Ulises, the oldest male in human care so far. Born in 1977-78, he's as of writing this 45-46 years old.
The oldest males of all three Southern resident pods were born in 1991 and 1993. Out of all Southern resident pods (J, K, L) and the various Northern resident pods and matrilines, here are all their oldest currently living males, as of 2023:
(I excluded all pods/matrilines where the oldest male was born in the 2000s, because there were also a few of those)
Name | Birth year |
|---|---|
R34 | 1996 |
R30 | 1994 |
R25 | 1987 |
R26 | 1988 |
I45 | 1985 |
I76 | 1997 |
I77 | 1997 |
I42 Skuna | 1983 |
G59 | 1995 |
G60 | 1998 |
G39 Shushartie | 1986 |
G32 | 1982 |
The second oldest male alive today in human care is Kshamenk, born ~1988, with the follow-ups being Kyuquot (1991), Keet (1993) and Keto (1995), which shows that the zoological population follows the same pattern as the wild. Tilikum was born ca. 1980, and was 37 years old when he died. At the time, only a small handful out of hundreds of Southern and Northern resident males were older than him.
When looking at life expectancy at birth, we will only use whales born in the 1960s or later, as explained.
Another rule we can use for both groups (as it is important that all rules are exactly equal for both groups), is to only use whales that died after 2000, or 1990, because both have had more time to grow old at that time, and in the case of aquariums, care has progressed from basically medieval times to the modern day, in just a few decades.
In the 1960s-70s, mortality was indeed appalling. For example, around 35 Southern residents were taken between 1964-1973, and by 1986 with the death of Winston, Lolita/Tokitae was the only one of these whales still alive.
For many reasons, it's important to note that care improved vastly after the first few decades, and this had a dramatic effect on lifespan (as well as their quality of life, of course).
We can also make separate calculations excluding certain facilities, or including SeaWorld only, but for the base calculation, we'll include all whales from all locations.
For wild whales, only the birth year itself is known, with rare exceptions where it's known they were born in a certain season.
For zoological whales, it can be a lot more precise since many of them have their exact day of birth known. I document their ages by whatever "half year" they're the closest to at the age of death.
Meaning, 20 years and 2 months is 20.
6 years and 7 months is 6.5.
12 years and 11 months is 13.
This is just to make it as close to reality as possible.
Zoological whales, deceased 2000-onwards:
Name | M/F | Death | Age | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Nord | Male | 06/23/2023 | 16 | Moskvarium |
Kiska | Female | 03/09/2023 | 47 | Marineland Ontario |
Narnia | Female | 01/01/2023 | 18 | Moskvarium |
Kohana | Female | 09/14/2022 | 20.5 | Loro Parque |
Nakai | Male | 08/04/2022 | 21 | SeaWorld San Diego |
Amaya | Female | 08/18/2021 | 6.5 | SeaWorld San Diego |
Ula | Female | 08/10/2021 | 3 | Loro Parque |
Skyla | Female | 03/11/2021 | 17 | Loro Parque |
Kayla | Female | 01/29/2019 | 30 | SeaWorld Orlando |
Kasatka | Female | 08/15/2017 | 41 | SeaWorld San Diego |
Kyara | Female | 07/24/2017 | 0 (3 months) | SeaWorld San Antonio |
Tilikum | Male | 01/06/2017 | 37 | SeaWorld Orlando |
All deceased Southern residents born ~1965-onwards:
(I'll do fair calculations only using wild whales dying after 2000 below, this is just for completeness)
ID | M/F | Birth | Death | Age |
|---|---|---|---|---|
K28 Raven | Female | 1994 | 2006 | 12 |
K24 Delphinus | - | 1990 | 1990 | 0 |
L? | Female | 2016 | 2016 | 0 (Found as a carcass) |
L120 Altair | - | 2014 | 2014 | 0 (1 month) |
L? Okab | Female | 2010 | 2010 | 0 (carcass carried by mother) |
L114 Capella | - | 2010 | 2010 | 0.5 |
L112 Sooke | Female | 2009 | 2012 | 3 |
L111 Testudo | - | 2008 | 2008 | 0 (<1 month) |
L107 Lamda | - | 2005 | 2005 | 0 (<1 month) |
L104 Domino | Male | 2004 | 2006 | 2 |
L102 Kappa | - | 2002 | 2002 | 0 (1 month) |
L101 Aurora | Male | 2002 | 2008 | 6 |
The case of Granny
Granny, or J2, was a Southern resident famous as "the oldest whale in the world" and "proof that SeaWorld's whales die young".
Completely aside from the reality of average age at death as I display through this article, we could accept that extreme outliers exist, no?
After all, the oldest recognized human ever lived to the ripe old age of 122 (and after her, 119), while a human half that age is considered "elderly" by international standards.
But in the case of Granny, no, she is not an outlier.
The theory of Granny's extreme age went roughly like this: It's 1976, and she is recorded for the first time. She is spotted in frequent contact with J1 Ruffles, an adult male who is believed to be her son. He is believed to be around 25 years old. She is not seen with other offspring (save for J12 Sissy, older than Ruffles), so he is believed to have been her last calf, born shortly before she entered "menopause".
Therefore, they decided she was around 65 years old, born ~1911.
That's it! That's the evidence!
If you can call it that.
There is no evidence of any of these things. Eventually, DNA-tests proved the opposite, Ruffles was not her relative at all. The two were simply close companions.
Many cases are known of females who had few or no calves throughout their lifespan (this will be added to another article). She could have been in her teens when recorded, and simply lived an infertile life.
In the end, the only evidence there is, is of an adult female spotted in 1976, which means she could have been born around ~1965.
She passed away in late 2016, aged "105", according to the pseudoscience... or above age ~51, if you look at the actual evidence.
Of course, we have no proof she wasn't older than 51. She could have been 60 or a little more, but hardly more than that.
A helpful clue is looking at the pods, Southern and Northern resident, as they are today.
While there were apparently many remarkably old, 80-100 year old whales before (the ones recorded as adults in the 1970s), today, there are almost none born before then, with the single exception of L25 Ocean Sun, and nine whales in the NR population (most of them from the 60s).
Isn't it remarkable how, as soon as the adults who were around in the 1970s are gone, virtually all of the oldest whales today are known to have been born in the 1970s?
Isabelle Puaut
A curious detail that few realize is that Corky is the oldest member of A-pod, which numbers nearly 60 animals, and she is the only one of that large pod still alive from the day she was taken, in 1969.
...and Lolita/Tokitae was the second-oldest and one of only two Southern residents (today numbering 73 animals) who were alive when she was taken in 1970.
Another important thing I discovered while crunching these numbers is that while we do have live zoological whales older than that, not one of the whales that have died in 2000-2023 (the last one at the time of writing being Nord), was born before 1976 (those being Winnie and Kiska).
This means, to once again make results more fair, I made a separate calculation using only wild whales born 1976 or later.
Same rules for both groups.
Born 1976-onwards.
Died 2000-onwards.
Simple as that.
The results were as follows:
Southern residents
All whales born 1965-onwards average 12.94 years at death
Whales born 1965-onwards and dead 2000 or later average 15.74 years at death
Whales born 1976-onwards and dead 2000-onwards average 12.22 years at death
Northern residents
All whales born 1965-onwards average 13.69 years at death
Whales born 1965-onwards and dead 2000 or later average 17.28 years at death
Whales born 1976-onwards and dead 2000-onwards average 12.89 years at death
Note then that the Northern residents are harder to document and far fewer infant deaths are recorded.
Zoological
Whales born 1976-onwards and dead 2000-onwards average 17.62 years at death
Excluding Marineland Ontario, same rules, it's 18.51 years at death
SeaWorld only, same rules, it's 19.65 years at death
Simplified, for SRs, the final figure of whales born 1976 or later (which is the most fair figure to compare with zoological whales) is just over 12 years. For NRs, it's at just under 13 years. For zoological whales, it's at ~17.5 years, over 19.5 years for SeaWorld alone.
It must be repeated that many calves that die in the first few days or weeks simply aren't recorded (SRs) or even for the first two years (NRs), so the true figure for the wild whales may not be known for sure.
Can we now please let go of this idea that "captive whales die young"?