Tilikum known as dangerous whale at SeaWorld Orlando
SeaWorld Orlando has always known that Tilikum, a 12,000-pound orca that killed trainer Dawn Brancheau on Wednesday, could be a particularly dangerous killer whale.
SeaWorld trainers were forbidden from swimming with Tilikum, as they often did with the resort’s seven other orcas.
Only about a dozen of 28 handlers, including Brancheau, had been specifically trained to work with him from the edge of SeaWorld’s pools.
That was in part because of his size: At an average weight of nearly 6 tons, Tilikum — nicknamed Tilly — was the largest orca at any of SeaWorld’s parks.
But it was also because of his ominous history.
In 1991, Tilikum and two female killer whales dragged trainer Keltie Byrne underwater, drowning her in front of spectators at Sealand of the Pacific, a defunct aquarium in Victoria, British Columbia.
Acquired by SeaWorld the next year to breed with female orcas, he was involved in a second incident in July 1999 when the naked body of a man who had apparently sneaked into SeaWorld after hours to swim with the whales was found draped dead across his back.
Authorities later concluded that the man, Daniel Dukes, likely suffered hypothermia in the 55-degree water and drowned, but they said it also appeared Tilikum bit the man’s body and tore off his swimming trunks after he had died.
Still, Chuck Tompkins, the corporate curator in charge of animal behavior for SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, said Tilikum was not an unusually violent orca.
“What you need to remember is, we’ve done thousands of interactions with this animal with no incidents whatsoever,” Tompkins told the Orlando Sentinel. He also noted that Tilikum had fathered many calves at SeaWorld, calling him “a valuable asset not only from a breeding standpoint but from a behavior standpoint, too.”
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