Gender:Male
Pod:N/A
Place of Capture: Born at SeaWorld of Florida
Date of Capture: Born on June 22, 1999
Age at Capture: Captive born
Current Location: SeaWorld of Texas
On June 22, 1999, captive born female Kalina gave birth to her fourth calf at SeaWorld Orlando, a male named Flash sired by the Icelandic male Tilikum.
The public did not seem to like the name Flash for the calf, and so the very first online-poll was held by SeaWorld to help name the calf. Tuar was the winning name, beating out two others - Illa, and Okkar.
The following year in November 2000, Tuar’s half brother was born to the captive born female Taima. However, Taima became unusually aggressive towards her calf, known as Tekoa, and as a result, Tekoa spent most of his time with Kalina and Tuar, with both young calves growing very close.
In April 2004, Tuar and Tekoa were both moved to SeaWorld San Antonio where they seemed to grow apart. Tekoa ended up being moved again in 2006 while Tuar remained at the Texas park.
While Tuar is not described as an aggressive whale, he has been involved in several incidents with trainers throughout the 2000′s; including clamping down on a trainer’s arm, clamping down on a trainer’s leg, coming out at trainers, as well as surfacing on top of trainers before.
Today, Tuar is 15 years old, has never sired a calf, and still remains at the SeaWorld Texas park.
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