Gender: FemalePod: N/APlace of Capture: Born at SeaWorld of FloridaDate of Capture: Born on December

Gender:Female
Pod:N/A
Place of Capture: Born at SeaWorld of Florida
Date of Capture: Born on December 27, 1996
Age at Capture: Captive born

On December 27, 1996, the Icelandic female Katina gave birth to her fourth calf at SeaWorld Orlando; a female named Unna sired by the Icelandic male Tilikum. As she grew, Unna spent a lot of time with her mother, as well as with her brother Taku, and half-siblings, Kalina and Tuar.

In 2002, Unna was transferred to SeaWorld San Antonio in Texas. Here, she met some of her nieces, nephews, and half-siblings. Her half-brother Tuar joined her at the park in 2004, and in 2006, Unna gave birth to her first calf; though the calf was, unfortunately, a stillborn. It is unknown whether she was artificially inseminated or was impregnated by one of her relatives living at the park with her.

While Unna is known to be gentle with trainers and has never had a recorded incident with anyone, she has reportedly displayed harmful stereotypical behavior in the past. According to former SeaWorld trainer John Hargrove, Unna was ‘obsessed’ with picking at the paint at the bottom of the show pool. “Unna used to destroy her face. Sometimes it would get so bad she wasn’t allowed in the front pool until her face healed,” Hargrove said. “Then we would let her out and try to prevent it. Sometimes she would leave it but eventually her focus would always go back to it. And once her focus went back to it it was an obsession, and she would do it until she injured herself.”

Unna apparently peeled such large patches of paint off the floor that it became a problem for trainers during waterwork, who often depended on the floor drains to locate themselves correctly in the pool for specific stunts. The dark patches looked so much like the pool drains that trainers had a hard time positioning themselves.

On September 22, 2015, SeaWorld posted to their SeaWorld Cares blog, stating that Unna had become ill and was under 24 hour watch due to suspected cystitis caused by a fungal infection. Less than a month later, another update was posted that mentioned a new treatment would be administered to Unna. Her condition had not improved, and veterinarians decided to try a medical treatment that had worked for humans for over a decade, but had not yet been used on an animals such as a Killer Whale.

As time went on, SeaWorld continuously posted updates regarding Unna’s care and her condition, but she did not seem to be improving, and was still under 24 hour intensive care.

Finally, on December 21, 2015, Unna unfortunately died after battling a resistant strain of Candida fungus. Necropsy results released by SeaWorld on February 6, 2016 reveal that Unna’s ultimate cause of death was due to a Systemic Bacterial Infection, also known as Septicemia/Sepsis.

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