ULSAN, Feb. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — A young dolphin calf at Jangsaengpo Whale Life Experience Museum is doing well, Ulsan’s Namgu City Management Corp. said on Thursday.
The corporation introduced ‘Ko Jang-su,’ a 20-month old dolphin calf, to the public on Thursday.
Ko’s parents are Jang Kot-bun, a 20-year old female, and Ko Ah-rong, a 17-year old male, and he was born on June 13, 2017.
The calf got his ‘family name’ from his father. His first name, Jang-su, means longevity in Korean.
Ko weighed 20 kilograms and was 120 centimeters long at the time of his birth. Now, he weighs around 172 kilograms and is 242 centimeters long.
Ko began consuming both fish and his mother’s breast milk when he was 6 months old. Now, he consumes roughly 5.2 kilograms of breast milk and fish every day.
The young dolphin and his mother live in a secondary pool, separated from three other dolphins in the exhibition pool. Visitors are prohibited from entering the secondary pool. Ko was able to jump and surface at his trainer’s signal.
Dolphin calves are known for their weak immune systems and are particularly vulnerable to respiratory diseases.
The corporation will set up standard procedures based on the experience of raising Ko to increase survival rate of dolphins in South Korea.
Image Credit: Yonhap / photonews@koreabizwire.com
