Zabu - An Orca in Search of the Unknown E-Book

Doris Thomas

• Herausgeber: via tolino media
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Zabu the orca lives peacefully with his family. One day, he is seized by great restlessness. He wants to go off to meet old friends and experience new adventures. Zabu's journey takes him from the pack ice to the warm waters of the coral reefs. And indeed, he meets his friends, Gal the beluga and Jasch the dolphin. But the orca also encounters whale species he never knew before, and even makes friends with a seal. When he hears the distant call of another orca, Zabu realizes what the real purpose of his journey is. This is the second of five lovingly illustrated reading adventures about Zabu and the sequel to "Zabu - The Adventures of a Young Orca" The book contains a lot of information about the most impressive creatures of the seas. Adventure 3 - Zabu - The Secret of the Orcas Adventure 4 - Zabu - Orcas in Danger Adventure 5 - Zabu - Orcas on the Run

Leseprobe

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Impressum

Acknowledgements

The Journey Begins

Danger in the Ice

The Long Teeth of the Narwhales

The Mysterious Bay

The Storm

An Old Friend

Luna

The Talking Seal

Swift as the Wind

Coming Home

Some interesting facts about whales

The whale species appearing in this book

The Adventures of Zabu

The Author

Impressum

© 2022 Doris Thomas

c/o Barbara’s Autorenservice

Tüttendorfer Weg 3

24214 Gettorf

Germany

Text and illustrations by Doris Thomas

Translated from German to English by Christine Sawinski

Cover by Doris Thomas (with kind permission of Verlag an der ESTE)

www.Doris-T.de

ISBN: 9783754651018

Acknowledgements

Without mentioning individual names, I would like to thank the following (everyone will know if they are meant):

For every support, for the interest, for the respect of my work, for the motivation, for any kind of encouragement and especially to the many children for their sincere enthusiasm.

I am grateful to my editor at the time for a pleasant and effective collaboration.

To the publishing house at ESTE I owe the great success of the Zabu adventures and the courage I gained through them to tackle many more book projects.

The Journey Begins

The sea had been very calm for a few days now. There was hardly any wind and only small waves moved the water surface. Zabu and his family were swimming in a small bay. They were swimming because they lived in the water. They were orcas. Mighty, big mammals that spend all their lives in the water and still have to surface for breathing. Zabu was the first son of Mira, their leader. He had been living with her and other close relatives since his birth. Zabu had two younger siblings; his entire family consisted of 17 orcas.

Many years ago Zabu had once been separated from his family. He only found them again after some exciting adventures. Now he was grown up. He was big and strong, and his dorsal fin rose from the water almost two meters high. When the sunbeams fell on his wet, black skin, the fin glistened like the giant sword of a knight. This is the reason why orcas are called “sword whales” (Schwertwale) in German. But only fully grown males have such an impressive, large fin. The female fin is smaller and shaped like a sickle.

Zabu was the oldest and biggest male in the family. It was about time for him to separate from his mother for a while and go his own ways. This was an old tradition amongst orcas. When a male orca was grown up he wandered about on his own for some time and visited other orca groups. Zabu was not afraid because he had learned during his adventurous journey how easy it was to find new friends. During the time of separation from his family he had even met some other whale species and made friends with them.

Thus it was a beautiful day for Zabu, when he said good-bye to his mother and the other relatives to turn his back on the quiet bay. Mira gazed after him for a long time. She was neither sad nor worried even though Zabu was leaving the shelter of his family. Her son was quite safe because orcas have no natural enemies in the sea. Only humans represent a danger to orcas. But Zabu had learned to avoid them.

The longing for old friends and new adventures tempted Zabu to go far away. With strong up-and-down movements of his tail fin he propelled himself forward and shot through the water as fast as a motor boat. Nothing could hold Zabu back now.

Danger in the Ice

Zabu swam in a northerly direction for a few days. The surrounding water became colder and colder during his journey. Zabu was hoping to meet his amusing friend Gal in this area. This time he would take care not to be fooled by the beluga’s spooky white appearance. He listened to the sounds of the sea attentively. It was never quiet. There were many different things to be heard. Natural sounds like the roar of the breakers on the shore or the far-away rumbling of a volcano. Various sounds made by fish under water and the occasional hissing of underwater currents.

Then there were also unnatural sounds. Amongst others there were the humming of the engines of the many boats and freighters, the buzzing of ships’ turbines or the banging near oil platforms. This unpleasant and sometimes painful noise was caused by humans.

Only two of the many information which reached Zabu’s sensitive ears through a tiny hole on each side of his head, were important. The sound of his prey, medium-sized fish, and the sounds of other whales. At this moment he was listening for particular whale voices, the whistling of belugas.

The water became even colder and the ice-floes floating on the surface became bigger and bigger. Softly the whistling sound of the belugas could be heard. Soon he would meet his friend Gal once again. Zabu was hoping that the belugas were fairly close. By and by the ice-floes were drifting together and covering the surface.

It was getting more difficult by the minute to find a place for surfacing. The whistling of the belugas became louder. But this did not sound like the happy calls of the white whales in their usual good mood. It sounded frightened and agitated. Zabu swam towards them quickly and realized straight away that there was no time for a long greeting.

“What’s the matter here? Where is Gal? What’s happened?” he shouted at the screaming belugas. They were really desperate and all of them talked at the same time.

“Gal’s son …”

“… in the ice!”

“stuck …”

“Gal can’t manage …”

Even though the belugas had not formed any coherent sentence Zabu understood. He heard two desperate voices from far underneath a giant ice slab. One was the exhausted voice of Gal and the other was the clear voice of a young whale. He was screaming with panic and pain.

Zabu knew there was no time to lose. He drew a deep breath and swam underneath the solid sheet of ice as quickly as possible. Soon he saw Gal who was trying with all his might to push through the icy slab above him with his head. Next to him the body of his son, who was trapped in the ice, was suspended. His head was above water, so at least he was able to breathe.

Gal was already quite weak. It was high time for him to draw breath but he did not want to leave his son. Without help the little one would die.

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