Tillikum and Taima, Orca Whales, Swimming

Taima and Tillikum swimming. Tillikum has killed his third human, Dawn Brancheau , 2/24/10. She was an experienced trainer, she knew not to swim with him, but he grabbed her and pulled her into the water against her will.
Dawn was in superb physical condition and was a skilled swimmer, but no match for the orca.
The attack occurred in front of the small audience of the "Dine with Shamu" show.
Tilly may have been bothered by renovations being done to a nearby pool.
Video of the attack exists but is not available to the public.
Reports conflict:
A trainer who watched the video claimed Dawn was lying in the water, close to the animal, in violation of the rules. She then made the fatal error of letting her pony tail drift in the water and Tillikum grabbed her by this ponytail.
An eye witness in the audience tells a different tale, saying that she was in fact standing and the whale leaped out of the water to grab her by her waist. He then shook her violently, even causing her shoe to fly off.
Seaworld president Dan Brown said in an official statement: "We have never, in the history of our parks, experienced an incident like this."
Seaworld purchased Tillium in 1991, after he killed Keltie Byrne, his trainer at Sea Land Marine Park Victoria, British Columbia.
In 1999, Daniel Dukes, a 27 year old man who sneaked past security was found dead, draped over Tillikum's back, with teeth marks on his body.
Other Seaworld whales have attacked other humans who escaped being killed.
Tillikum is a transient, mammal-eating orca.
He was taken from the wild, not captive breed.
Tillikum has passed his genes on to 13 killer whale calves through Sea World's breeding program.
More about transient orcas:
There are two sub-species of killer whales: residents, who are fish eaters, and transients, who are mammal eaters.
Transient orcas are not meant to live on fish according to their genes, instincts, and the skills they learn from observing their family members. These killer whales naturally kill and eat any other species of mammal available to them, including animals both smaller than themselves and lager. They NATURALLY grab and kill mammals who are on land near the edge of the water.
While Tilly could have been acting on anger, fear, frustration, or other emotion that would spark murderous behavior in a human, he might have been feeling something more akin to the joy a cat feels chasing a ribbon, or the satisfaction we feel when we obtain a favored food. No one knows. Orcas are large brained and emotional mammals, but they are not human.
Dawn Brancheau, rest in peace.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Orca
• Orcas
• Killer
• Whale
• Whales
• Shamu
• Taima
• Tillikum
• Sea
• World
• Orlando
• Florida
• swimming
• Seaworld
• underwater

[FinnAslanMaria]

Aus diesen Gründen besuche ich weder Zoos, noch Tierpaks oder Zirkusse!!!!

[turkeyluvsu9]

Actually I think you'll find that the man who snuck into sea world after hours died of hyperthermia Tillikum did not kill him. Please get your facts right.

[trinitrotolueneBANG]

these whales aren't swimming. they're fucking imprisoned.

[followhisfootprints]

Wow, that looks like so much fun swimming in circles all day. Seriously, and people wonder why Tillikum has a history of hostility with humans. Ummm...maybe cuz we forcibly took him from the wild. Away from his family, away from freedom and put him in a concrete box. I'd hate us too.

[taurusred]

@klb084 Humans heal, help, protect, conserve wildlife. Humans have more sympathy and compassion than probably any other living creature out there - I worked for animal welfare, it's a huge huge industry. The average person loves and cares for animals. Wildlife conservation parks, animal welfare orgs, the human race puts a lot of effort and love into caring for wildlife - no animal out there actually gives a flying s__t about your welfare. Stop with the humans-are-bad stuff.

[yunakin09]

Yay swimming in circles around that tank a hundred times a day every single day when they are not performing sounds like alot of fun >:(

[Silvawolf100]

@Ichijojichan Just so you know Sea World does not bring the Mammal eating Orcas into their facility. There are two kinds of Orca in the wild. Fish eaters, and Mammal eaters. They typically only eat one or the other

[metridium]

@dcFaddy To use the rigors of the wild as a justification

for the conditions of captivity is misleading and

disingenuous. This argument implies that the natural

state is an evil to be avoided and that the captive

environment is the preferred state. The suggestion

is that animals must be protected from the very

surroundings that sustain them. Naomi A. Rose PhD- 2009