Gift Republic Adopt an Orca,2.5 x 16 x 22.5 cm

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For many people it is a lifelong dream to swim with dolphins. However, Born Free is convinced that few people would partake in the practice if they knew that such interactions could be highly stressful and damaging for the animals. Choosing to pay by Direct Debit helps your money go further; it helps our long-term planning and keeps our administration costs down.

The group known as the West Coast Community of orcas is one of the British Isles’ few orca pods with one member in particular, a male known as John Coe, being particularly distinctive. This famous orca was an adult when he was first spotted in 1980 which puts him at least 60 years old, making him one of the oldest known wild male orcas in the world today. Holly tends to favour the southerly waters of Georgia Strait during the winter months and sometimes during the summer as well. So much of Holly’s family history has been connected with these southerly waters. Before she was born, in 1968 and again in 1969 her entire pod was captured. Tragically, 12 orcas were taken from the wild into captivity. Holly’s mother, grandmother and uncle were among the six who were left behind, no doubt scarred from living through such a traumatic experience. Holly has certainly always avoided the location where her family was captured, speaking to the deep connections within orca families that span generations.

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Born Free is a member of the Dolphinaria-Free Europe coalition, established in 2014, representing a global community of NGOs and professionals working together on behalf of cetaceans throughout Europe. Born Free works to raise awareness of poor conditions and encourage an informed public to consider directing their support away from keeping cetaceans in captivity. We are proud to have rescued individual captive cetaceans, rehabilitating them and safely returning them to the wild, and we support the development of high-quality sanctuaries to provide improved lifetime care for cetaceans currently in captivity who cannot be released to the wild. What you can do to help Our biggest effort is our Exhibit Hall which is open to the public nearly year-round. Through two floors of exhibits, visitors learn more about the Southern Resident Community of orcas, other marine mammals and the Salish Sea ecosystem. We hope that by learning about this richly diverse yet fragile ecosystem, visitors will be inspired to become better stewards. It was nearly a decade later before Mousa was positively identified in Shetland as she and her pod were seen cruising through Mousa Sound in 2008 – hence her name. Since then, she has been a regular seasonal visitor to Scottish shores. Even as I write this word reaches me from Katie, my WDC colleague in the Moray Firth, that Mousa, together with her three kids, Gunnar, Summer and Tide have just been spotted off Lossiemouth and only a few miles along the coast from our Scottish Dolphin Centre where they are more accustomed to spotting bottlenose dolphins. In 2011, Born Free and Whale and Dolphin Conservation published the results of investigations into the status and performance of 18 dolphinaria across the EU. It revealed that dolphinaria were generally failing to meet the requirements of EU legislation, which aims to protect whales and dolphins in captivity. If you can’t decide which of our adorable animals you want to adopt, you may be interested in becoming a Born Free supporter by setting up a monthly donation. The money we receive from our regular donations is unrestricted, and allows us to support the projects that need it the most.

Cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) suffer physically and mentally from life in captivity. The physical, sensory and social environment in which these animals have evolved to live contrasts dramatically with the restricted and barren tanks found in dolphinaria, where cetaceans are held for viewing or performance to entertain visitors. How Born Free is working on this issue

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This cookie is set by TVSquared to measure impressions, reach and outcomes across linear and digital TV. Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. Having multiple prey items to choose from probably led to the niche specialisations we see today – millions of year ago, different groups started eating different things to avoid competing for the same food. Now these groups are genetically different, in addition to their unique appearance and cultures. Help raise awareness of the plight of cetaceans in captivity by signing our pledge not to take ‘Selfish Selfies’– photos that use captive wild animals such as dolphins and whales as photo props.