Big Mouth the Whale Loses Battle With Disease

His name was Big Mouth, and it was plain to see why. During three years oftreatment for a bone disease that attacked his jawbone and one flipper, the 1-ton beluga whale had delighted Sea World employees with his friendly manner and immense grin.

So it was with great sorrow Tuesday that the marine park announced that Big Mouth, a small-toothed cetacean that had once been the star attraction of the Minnesota Zoo, was dead--euthanized late Monday after doctors determined he was losing his fight with osteomyelitis.

“There’s a tremendous feeling of loss and sadness,” said Brian Joseph, the director of biological programs at the Minnesota Zoo, who came to San Diego last week to help care for his zoo’s most-loved mascot. “It was the most responsible and humane decision--to stop him from suffering any further, since he had a hopeless disease. But that decision (was) not lightly made.”

Big Mouth and a female beluga whale, Little Girl, were captured in 1977 in the waters off Manitoba, Canada. When the Minnesota Zoo opened its doors the following year, the whale duo was the highlighted attraction, drawing crowds of land-locked Midwesterners who lined up to get a glimpse of the gentle seagoing creatures.

So, when Big Mouth developed several unhealing lesions--the outer, visible signs of the disease that was attacking his bones--and zoo officials decided to send the two whales West for medical care, Minnesotans mourned. Before Big Mouth left for San Diego, the zoo waived its admission price for a day so people could say goodby. More than 32,000 people showed up--about three times the average crowd.

“An ailing friend was being taking away, probably not to come back and probably to die,” said Jim Klobuchar, a columnist at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune for 25 years. “The affection the folks felt here for that animal was real. And the sadness was real.”

Since arriving in San Diego in 1987, Big Mouth had been plied with state-of-the-art antibiotics and topical ointments. Although he was never on public display at Sea World, he was a favorite of marine keepers, who attended to him in a large off-exhibit pool that he shared with several bottlenosed dolphins.

“All of us at Sea World have grown attached to him,” said Dan LeBlanc, a park spokesman who said that without Big Mouth’s affectionate cooperation, his treatment would have been much more difficult. “There’s no question about it, he’ll be missed.”

At times, it appeared that veterinarians had succeeded in halting the disease’s progress. But, two weeks ago, Big Mouth grew listless, stopped eating and was not responding to treatment, Joseph said.

Despite hand-feeding and an increase in antibiotics, Joseph said, “Nothing was working. He continued to deteriorate, and he lost weight.” Besides being ill, Joseph said, Big Mouth was elderly--well over 20 and possibly over 30 years old.

“That worked against him,” Joseph said, estimating that the mean life expectancy for a beluga whale is nine years.

After consulting several marine mammal specialists, as well as physicians who treat osteomyelitis in humans, Big Mouth was given a sedative and then a fatal dose of barbiturates.

Zoo officials said they were thankful Big Mouth had lived as long as he did.

“Big Mouth represented the Minnesota Zoo in the hearts and minds of many Minnesotans,” said Minnesota Zoo director Kathryn Roberts. “While we mourn his death, we are glad for the additional years of life the transfer to Sea World gave him and the fact that his recent suffering has ended.”

Big Mouth was the sixth whale to die at the marine park since 1988. Last month, a false killer whale named Asia died from an internal infection. About one year before, Big Mouth’s teen-age companion, Little Girl, died of cardiopulmonary arrest after a brief illness.

Three of Sea World’s killer whales have died within an 18-month span. The latest was Knootka, an 8,500-pound animal in her mid- to late 20s, who died in March after a four-month battle with a rare fungus infection.

In September, 1988, just three days after the birth of Baby Shamu, the baby’s father, Orky, died of natural causes brought on by old age, park officials said. At about 30 years old, Orky was the oldest killer whale in captivity at the time.

A year later, Baby Shamu’s mother, Kandu, died in a freak injury caused when the 14-year-old whale attempted to dominate another female whale during a performance.