Shedd has high hopes after rare dolphin birth

A Pacific white-sided dolphin gave birth to an apparently healthy calf Friday at the Shedd Aquarium after coming home pregnant last year from a trip to Miami's Seaquarium.

The birth is a rare and important one for the Shedd, where only three white-sided dolphins have given birth since the species arrived in the marine mammal Oceanarium 20 years ago. None of the births was successful.
 

The mother is Tique, pronounced TEE-kay, a 26-year-old who accounted for two of the previous births. She had a stillborn calf in 1995, not unusual for first-time dolphin mothers, said Ken Ramirez, Shedd vice president.

In 2003 a calf she bore weakened and died after four days when it failed to learn how to nurse. The other dolphin birth at the Shedd was a stillborn to a different first-time dolphin mother.

"This is a good healthy calf," Ramirez said of the newest baby, whose sex has yet to be identified. He said that the little dolphin is showing signs of wanting to nurse and that its mother seems to be trying to guide it to her mammary glands, a learning that can take two or three days.

"Tique is a much more attentive and skilled mother than she was before," Ramirez said. "The calf surfaced for its first breath soon after birth, and Mom is guiding the calf around the habitat and seems to be trying to show where the calf should go on her body to begin nursing."

With no resident male Pacific white-sided dolphins living at the Shedd, Tique was sent a year ago to Miami Seaquarium to mate with an adult male. There are fewer than 20 Pacific white-sided dolphins in captivity in North American facilities, so a successful birth is extremely important.

"This calf must reach several milestones in its first days and months," said Ramirez. The first is to show that mother and calf are strongly bonded, which can take a few days, he said.

Mother and calf won't be exhibited during the critical first few days, Ramirez said. They are under 24-hour staff observation and likely to remain under observation for a few months while the calf passes through several crucial milestones, such as learning to nurse, swimming on its own and swimming with other dolphins.

Celebrity Death: Gunsmoke actor James Arness dead in LA celebrity home?

Celebrity Death!

Gunsmoke actor James Arness dead in LA celebrity home?

Immortalized in Toby Keith’s song, Should’ve Been a Cowboy, legendary actor James Arness, passed away quietly Friday, June 3, in his Los Angeles celebrity home. Known most for his role as Marshal Dillon on Gunsmoke from 1955 to 1975, he was the epitome of a Hollywood cowboy, and also starred in dozens of movies, some as recent as 1994. James Arness (brother of late Mission Impossible actor, Peter Graves), died of natural causes at age 88. During Arness’s career, he shared screen time with numerous famous actors, including Alec Baldwin, John Wayne, Harrison Ford, Burt Reynolds, Dennis Weaver, and Charles Bronson. The Minnesota-born actor fit the ideal stereotype for a cowboy, with his quiet demeanor and massive (for the time) 6-foot, 6-inch stature. The cultural icon has a star on the walk of fame, three Emmy Award nominations, a TVLand Nomination and is a 1967 Western Heritage and 1986 Golden Boot award recipient.

Arness landed the Gunsmoke role when John Wayne turned it down and recommended him for the slot. The longest-running television drama, focused on 1873 Dodge City, Kansas, and its lawmen and criminals. At one time during production, there were 30 competitive ‘cowboy’ television shows, and Gunsmoke outlasted them all, with episodes still playing on TVLand. The show was set during a timeframe in which our nation thrived on a green lifestyle, with very little industry and renewable energy coming from the efforts of humans and animals. It was a time in which vegetable gardens and organic methods were the norm for families on the frontier, and virtually every tool and resource was renewed or recycled. The show itself included horses as a staple in its scenes. There are no records of any negative treatment of animals on the show, and the stars seemed to treat them similar to true pioneers of the Old West: as reliable sidekicks.

A decorated World War II veteran, James Arness was awarded the Bronze Star; the Purple Heart (wounded at Anzio); the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with three bronze campaign stars; the World War II Victory Medal and the Combat Infantryman Badge. After the war, he started his career as a radio announcer in Minnesota in 1945. Then in the 1950’s, he signed a contract with John Wayne’s production company.

The family has asked that fans honor his memory with donations to United Cerebral Palsy in his name, a cause for which he was passionate