![[HOME]](images/icons/Orca_home.gif){kind=icon}
| |
   
| Around 8:00 PM, Thursday, April 22, Karin went into labor and began giving birth to this year's litter of pups. We have had some very heavy rains of late and all the work they did on the Island was to no avail. By Thursday all the dens had collapsed and all the remaining craters were full of water. We are thankful that the rain flooded the den before she gave birth. To give Karin a nice place to have pups, we put straw into one of the wooden shelters. She had given birth in one of these before so acceptence was not an issue for her. However, last year's pups seemed to take great joy in pulling out any straw we put inside so after Karin gave birth, we needed to go in and add some more. Just like years past, Karin was very comfortable with having Jill and Monty go into her 'den', handle the pups, check their health and in this case, give them some more straw. While visiting, Jill also rubbed Karin's ears. She always likes that and made that cute little humming sound when you hit the right spots! Oh, and Jill found we have two male and two female pups just like last year! Unfortunatly, one of the male pups did not survive. This is very rare for us and in this case, something very unusual happened where Marion managed to sneak into the den and steal a pup. Not meaning to, she accidently injured the pup and he did not survive. :( The pups have since been removed for hand rearing and the remaing three, Ingo, the male, and Julia and Jessica, the two females are doing great and growing FAST! We do not plan on keeping any of the pups, but donating them to facilities out east. Ingo will be donated to Wolf Timbers and the two females to a new facility in New York. |
