| Captured in Febuary of 1967, Ramu was one of the most aggresive orcas held in captivity. He belonged to K pod, and of the 5 orcas captured, he lived the longest. Raum's moods would change very quickly. He didnt like gulls because they would try to steal his fish. So he was very aggresive towards them. Once when a gull tried to steal his fish, he grabbed it by its head and dragged it under water, then released it unharmed. The Navy did a hearing study on Ramu. Seaworld would "rent" out a killer whale if they had an excess one. And at that time they had an excess male orca name Ramu. The navy were told that Ramu was available because that he was so aggresive, his trainers didn't want to work with him. He was put in the back pool because of this and he sort of launguished there. The facility where he stayed was was one of the oldest killer whale facilities, which, by todays standards is horribly small. During the summer he would do up to 16 shows, same show over and over again. He obviously either got bored, or just plain out didnt like it. He showed his displeasure by his "munching and crunching." So this got him moved to the back. When the Navy got there, Ramu had never done any research studies; it was completly new to him. The navy described him as sort of a "workaholic." The hearing tests they did on him, he found much more interesting than the shows he did, as they required alot of concentration on his part. He had to position himself inside a redwood box, a sound proof enclosure, and sit very still, listening for the cue. Then he had to back out of the box and press a lever. And if he didnt hear it he would just set there and wait for another one. And he would do these for a hundred trials in a row! The trainers said they had to be extremly careful when ending a certain trial, to move directly to the next one, or else he would become aggresive if he thought that they were cutting off his work. They said he was a truley remarkable whale. He died at seaworld florida in Febuary of 1982 after 15 years in captivity. |
