China Orca Parks

Well in May I took in a trip I had been very nervous to do – going to China to meet the orcas. Due to China’s black out nature, I had been nervous because it was difficult to get travel information from Google Maps. I also thought I had to get a tourist visa from the embassy which seemed long winded. But after going to Japan, and learning about the 10 day transit visa option and meeting Cesar who was doing a China trip after Japan, I decided to bring forward my intended trip. I did lots of YouTube video research to prepare me for all the phone apps I was going to need.

Shanghai
So I landed in Shanghai and I had booked a hotel that was centralish between the airport and Haichang. Unfortunately I couldn’t sleep the night before, but in the morning I took a Didi to Haichang and bought a ticket on the door. I arrived just in time for the start of the 11am orca show. Wow, what a sight to behold Panghu. What an incredible male. What on earth is in the water to allow Panghu and Shawn to keep such straight dorsals?! I’m convinced Panghu is the biggest male in captivity too, not Tyson. During my time at Shanghai over 3 days I went to all shows which were only 11am on Thursday and Friday, and on Saturday there was an 11am and 1pm. The shows were 15-20 mins long. It basically seemed like the Panghu show, and then they brought in Dora, Zimo and Cody. Cookie was never used, only brought to the trainer stage at the end of the shows. And Shawn was kept out all of the shows except the last one where he was used at the very end.

After the shows I would basically spend all day at the underwater glass. Zimo really was the star. He was so curious and interactive at the glass. But he had a slight stereotypy pattern of swimming along the wall. Not quite as bad as Cody’s stereotypy though of banging his head underneath the concrete stage.
The groupings appeared to be primarily Shawn alone in the left pool, Cody and Zimo in the main underwater glass pool and Dora, Cookie and Panghu in the right pool. However they would mix them up throughout the day. On the first day, Shawn was in with Cody and Zimo for part of the day, which was not really a great thing for the little ones as Shawn kept trying to penetrate them! Particularly Cody, poor boy. Even Panghu tried to get in on the action too. I felt like Cody was roughhoused a lot, even Zimo would bash against him!

I didn’t see a whole lot of Dora and Cookie. But Cookie was absolutely huge. So so clearly pregnant (and turns out she gave birth a month after my visit!).

Not only was Zimo very active at the glass but he was also very vocal too. I was very confused at what I was hearing at first, but then I realized it was Zimo. I was also very pleased and privileged when I got my own personal interaction with Zimo when no one else was around. Loved it.

As mentioned before, I went to the park 3 days. On day 2 and 3 I managed to get discounted entry as ‘Ladies ticket’ – this was to do with it being around mother’s day apparently. Very happy about that. Unfortunately the afternoon of my last day the orcas were kept out of the underwater glass, whilst some workers did maintenance outside the tank. I explored the rest of the park but can’t say I was overly impressed. I observed some fire animal welfare conditions and acts of animal abuse, by both staff and guests. I’m glad to see the orcas were doing well for the most part but I can’t say the same about the other animals in the park.
 

Chimelong
After Shanghai I flew to Zhuhai and stayed a short Didi ride away from Chimelong Spaceship. I bought a 2 day ticket. I headed straight for the underwater orcas. For both days in the main pool and used in the shows were Nakhod, Chaid, Kaixin and Yilong. They were used in two short underwater performances, and then the two main shows in the stadium. The main shows were absolutely hectic. I’ve never seen such chaos and sensory overload in a show before. The shows were 35 mins and feature blaringly loud music, dancers, water skiiers and pelicans and ibis! Then finally it’s the orcas. They introduce each orca in the show and then do a video clip about the baby orcas of Chimelong. I do worry for the orcas with the noise though.

Speaking of babies, I went down to the Kindergarten pool and got to see Nukka, Sonya and Liulong/Pearl! Ahh what a little cutie. So sweet to see her. She had moments of being independent. And looked like Nukka has one on the way! I asked a staff member if she was pregnant and she was like ‘Shhh!’, so that suggested yes to me lol.

Towards the end of my first day I went back over to the Kindergarten pool and saw two orcas in there – a small and large one. It was the quickest of glimpses before they closed the curtain but my gut told me it was Loki and Bandhu. Quite a special sighting as I hear they are typically off exhibit!
The following day was very much the same in terms of where each groups were. I had been disappointed at the end of the first day to not have seen Tyson, Katenka, Jade and the calves. However during the day I went over to the Kindergarten pool and was surprised to see those 6 in there. Again, it was only a short sighting, and I was worried that would be my only sighting of the day. Tyson, Jade and Jingxi were briefly put in the main pool, but again it wasn’t for long.

I was relieved when at the last hour of the day that that group were put into the main pool. It was fascinating to see them. To me Tyson didn’t look like the biggest male orca of all. And the babies Katniss, Jingxi and Bowen were oddly small. All 3 were older than Zimo, yet Zimo seemed so much bigger and more independent than all of them. These calves looked like one year olds. And it was crazy how Katniss was barely any bigger than Bowen. Most odd.
Finally, I visited the underwater restaurant twice even though it was horrifically overpriced and underwhelming food choices. But I did get the orca chocolate mousse which was nice!

 
But yeah, what a treat to see them all. I officially saw all captive orcas in China – except 2 new ones will make the list – Cookie’s and Nukka’s calves. I guess I will have to go back at some point?!