San Diego
- Share via
Baby Shamu II, the killer whale born Jan. 5 at Sea World, died of a respiratory infection brought on by heart lesions.
Sea World officials announced the cause of death Thursday after preliminary results of a post-mortem revealed the defective heart.
Dr. Lanny H. Cornell said the heart problem resulted in lung congestion that was followed by infection.
Baby Shamu II, the offspring of 27-year-old Shamu and his 12-year-old mate, Kenau, weighed 350 pounds when born and appeared healthy.
However, there is a high mortality rate for whales born in captivity. The only killer whale born in captivity to survive is Shamu’s only other offspring, born at the Sea World in Orlando, Fla.
More From the Los Angeles Times
Podcasts
UCLA professor and climate scientist, Alex Hall, joins host Kate Cagle to talk about how we can better prepare ourselves for the next mega-fire, including a proposal to create a classification system – and a standardized response – for Santa Ana wind storms, similar to the one we use for hurricanes in the U.S.
The Hillside Strangler murders terrorized Los Angeles in the late 1970s. The killers were a pair of sadistic cousins. One confessed. The other was set to stand trial—until L.A. prosecutors flinched.
Hosts Fidel Martínez and Suzy Exposito sit down with actor and stand-up comedian Fabrizio Guido — currently starring in Netflix’s Running Point — for a conversation about growing up all over LA, making his film debut alongside Brad Pitt in World War Z at age 12, and what it took to build a career from child actor to leading man.
