Captive Crew

I have been considering adding some captives to my list of characters. I currently only have wild individuals and I love them, but  I have had in my mind for a while that I want to make captive characters that share personality traits with my pets XD Argh I'm just too addicted to making characters T_T I have too many!
This is not my best work and was a bit more quick and dirty then usual. Even so, I'm still pretty happy with it.

So meet my captive crew!

Koppa, Minnie and Roo!

I haven't thought too much about these guys stories, but I had a huge urge to draw them, and given I haven't drawn anything in a long time, I went with it! Even though I was up until 2am XD Yes, I should be studying. Oops. This will likely be an incoherent ramble as I try to make some stories up on the spot XD

These guys  live in an experimental sea pen facility and can be taken for 'walks' out in the ocean alongside a boat they are trained to follow for additional exercise. All of the animals are freeze branded on their dorsal with a unique marking in the event they ever escape; they are easily identifiable by the public. This experiment is a long-term rehabilitation program that will attempt to release an entire pod of captive-born killer whales into the wild. This unprecedented program will go for many years and involve new generations born in this sea pen facility that will have very little exposure to humans. As the current generation in the program are already accustomed to humans, they will still receive close human contact to maintain their health, mental well-being and exercise. Currently only 3 killer whales reside at the facility, but more will arrive within the next few years to create a functioning pod. It is important that the correct individuals be chosen for this ambitious program.

    Minnie and Roo are sisters. Minnie is 24 years old and the Matriarch of the small pod. She is freeze-branded with a 'v' mark. Minnie and her sister arrived at the sea pen 3 years ago after it was constructed. She is mighty when she needs to be and can give the larger bull, Koppa, a run for his money. Koppa is beginning to learn who the boss is. While she is a tough leader, she is fair and looks after her pod.

Minnie was chosen as a candidate for the experimental sea pen facility as she has been in perfect health her whole life, is very strong, smart and a little more independent from humans then most captive-born individuals. She is still interested in humans and interacts with them positively, but it is certainly more on her terms then the humans. If Minnie doesn't want to, Minnie doesn't. She would honestly rather spend more time with whales than humans, but has never had an aggressive incident involving a human. (One of the requirements of coming to the sea pen facility)

One day, trainers arrived at the facility to find, for some unknown reason, the gate out of the pen the girls were kept in had been opened and the girls were not in the sea pen. After much panic, they realized the girls were chilling outside of the sea pen not very far away and casually let themselves back in the pen when trainers recalled them. The incident didn't seem to bother them at all, but security and cameras increased after the event.

Minnie and Roo grew up in stable pod with family and long-term pod mates, so she has an extremely good understanding of pod dynamics. Trainers are hoping Minnie becomes pregnant before new pod mates arrive at the facility to set her position as Matriarch in stone, and hoping she raises the first generation to be successfully released into the wild.

    Roo is 16 years old and freeze-branded with double horizontal lines. She was chosen as a candidate by default. If Minnie was going, Roo was too. She suffers severe separation anxiety and must always be kept with another pod mate, usually that is Minnie. The two sisters are very close. It was decided her psychological issues wouldn't be detrimental to the program as the point was to create a strong and stable pod that stay together.
Roo can become anxious when the pod is going through a stressful time or when pod mates are not getting along. When she is anxious, she makes a high-pitched whining vocalisation until she calms down or the situation is resolved.

Even after being attacked by Koppa, she maintained her sweet nature with him and is very good at helping him adjust. She uses her anxious whine vocalization when she thinks Koppa is not doing the right thing or is starting to show dominance. Roo gets along with everyone.
On her ocean 'walks' with her sister, Roo usually keeps close to the safety and familiarity of the boat, while Minnie is a bit more adventurous and will explore the area around the boat. When Minnie ventures too far, Roo often becomes anxious and whines until she comes back.

Unfortunately Roo has suffered with serious illness several times since arriving at the facility, but has managed to overcome them with extra care and temporary medication. Hopefully with time her immune system will cope better with her new environment.

    Koppa is a 15 year old male who came to the facility 2 years ago. He is freeze-branded with a '7' mark. He was not an ideal candidate for this program with his current issues, but the pod needed a new male after the original male brought to the facility didn't cope with the drastic environment change and was plagued with illness until he passed away a year after moving to the facility. Koppa was chosen as he was a very healthy young male and trainers believed he would flourish with more space and a strong matriarch.

When Koppa was young, his mother passed away from birthing complications. He was left in the facility with 3 unrelated older males. As killer whales live in a matriarchal society with males and females, growing up in this pod dynamic was unusual. The boys were often quite rough and as there were no females to keep them in line, they became quite dominant towards each other.

When Koppa was 5 years old, he was viciously attacked by one of the males over a toy. The attack caused the indent wound on his back just above his dorsal fin that never filled in. Unfortunately, this incident drastically changed his personality negatively. As Koppa grew larger (He is quite a significant size for his age), he realized he had the ability to stand his own with his large size and Koppa became dominant over his tank mates. He became possessive of his toys and food, becoming aggressive if any whale came close to a toy he was playing with, or any that tried to go near his food. While Koppa could get along with the other killer whales at the facility, trainers had to keep him separated whenever they fed him or gave him toys to play with.

This behavior towards other killer whales is such a shame, because towards people, Koppa is the most BEAUTIFUL natured animal you could imagine. He is so sweet, caring and playful. Completely submissive, even. He just loves humans. He is also very aware of his size and the fragility of humans, and is so gentle towards them. Koppa has never been involved in any incident involving a human. A gentle giant. It upsets trainers a lot when they think of how he could have turned out if he was kept in a proper social structure and never attacked at such an impressionable age.

 When Koppa arrived at the sea pen, his new trainers started immediately working on his behaviour towards the resident females. The first interaction with them resulted in Koppa trying to attack the females. Very slow and positive interactions with them, Koppa is feeling more comfortable around them. He can pod swim with them and even play with them. Trainers thought his progress was going well, so they experimented giving the entire group toys to play with. Unfortunately, when one of the females, Roo, tried to play with the toy, Koppa became aggressive and attacked her, causing the cut in her left fluke. The older female of the pod, Minnie, didn't take kindly to the young males aggression and displayed her full power as Matriarch and got him right back, causing the notch in his left pectoral fin. Trainers were able to separate the animals before anyone was seriously injured.
Trainers have successfully group fed the pod without incident and the bonds between the pod is growing stronger, but toy sharing is currently off the table until Koppa can be trusted. Koppa has not yet been out on an ocean 'walk' as trainers don't feel confident taking him out yet.