The Truth About Keiko's Death

I have been a long term visitor to the SeaWorld Orlando park and have loved the opportunity of seeing the whales and other sealife there. Reading this article and the comments has changed my viewpoint. Parks like SeaWorld allow people to learn more about whales and how they can be protected, but then is holding them in captivity actually part of the problem?

I am saddened with this news. But as far as I know animals like Keiko should be freed and and be set to the wild. Thanks for sharing.

Keiko's death was an unmitigated tragedy. So when you understand this, a funny thing happens, and some people misinterpret it. Now, the first thing, though, that we have to do is to get our perspectives with some background about the basic ideas that, as Westerners living today in the United States, influence our everyday common sense, our fundamental notions about what life is about. When I was a child, I used to ask my mother all sorts of ridiculous questions, which of course every child asks, and when she got bored with my questions, she said 'Darling, there are just some things which we are not meant to know. RIP Keiko.

This is very sad to hear. You always hope that these animals will adapt in the wild, but there is no guarantee. As long as you can save a few, I think it is all worth it in the long run.

I wanted to thank you for this great read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post

Thanks for clarifying the truth about Keiko's death, because I must say I did think it was from starvation. However I also read an article this morning by Dale Richards one of Keiko's trainers and he also said the death was respiratory complications. Must be hard having been in captivity since 1979 to adjust to going back to the wild I think...poor guy was star, but just like the human Hollywood ones, seems to have gone before his time!

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Matt Paul Collins
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Clive Wynne provides his clear and consistent interpretation of Keiko's abilities and motivations, but unfortunately it is based on an obsolete understanding of the natural history of the species Orcinus orca. It is perfectly reasonable that Wynne would come to his conclusions based on our traditional notions of separation of human vs. non-human animals and greatly reduced capabilities of the non-human variety. Recent scientific discoveries have, however revealed that orcas don't fall into either of those categories.

In "Culture in whales and dolphins," (Rendell & Whitehead, 2001, Journal of Behavioural and Brain Sciences), the abstract states: "The complex and stable vocal and behavioural cultures of sympatric groups of killer whales (Orcinus orca) appear to have no parallel outside humans and represent an independent evolution of cultural faculties." In other words, orcas are not like other non-human animals. In their cultural behavior, they're more like us.

This means that rather than assuming that Keiko "imprinted on humans" it is more accurate to say he became friends with humans while separated from his cultural community. A goose or a dog might imprint on humans, but an orca would no more imprint on humans that a human would imprint on an orca or a dog. So to understand what Keiko yearned for, we need to realize that for him, not only was he always and forever an orca (and not just a trained companion for humans) but, as he demonstrated with his vocalizations, he was a member of a particular extended clan of orcas that may still live somewhere in the North Atlantic.

This revised conception of Keiko's psychology radically alters our interpretation of all the events leading up to his death. For one thing, he didn't need "remedial training in how to be a proper killer whale." In the Pacific Northwest we now have seen two solitary orca calves who successfully fed themselves at under two years old, indicating that those skills are learned at a very early age. Reports from 1997 show that when Keiko was first offered live fish in his tank in Oregon he quickly caught and ate them. Since eating is a cultural activity for orcas he often brought the fish to his human companions, or declined to dine alone, thus reinforcing the outdated interpretation that he couldn't do it without training. Wynne grudgingly admits that Keiko "may even have caught a few wild fish," on his way to Noway, but in fact he travelled roughly a thousand miles over six weeks and showed up with a belly full of fish, albeit a bit exhausted. After twenty-plus years of confinement he lacked the athletic conditioning that is normal for his species after all, but with a few more similar workouts he could have gained it back.

The pneumonia diagnosis to explain his death is speculation, and if true, it was probably secondary to the primary fact that Keiko was left alone too much of the time in his last weeks and months. His family may have been far away near Iceland, or they may have been all but wiped out during the captures for aquariums over twenty years ago. Keiko needed his family, or at least some constant human companions for his mental, emotional and physical health. Just as all whales have taken complete conscious control over their respirations, the record shows that when they lose the will to live their immune systems tend to crash.

Wynne is right that "Keiko should probably never have been removed from his native pod," but beyond that, his conventional perspective on Keiko's life and death is completely inadequate.

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Ohhh I am steamed at the ignorance of Bernard on 4-21. "But as an experienced person in the field, we have to believe what Thad has said." Thad was NOT there. He was not in THAT field. He may have expertise in some areas, but he is showing ignorance on speaking on Keiko since he was not a participant in that program. I know as I was "one degree of separation", got the Keiko updates weekly, and was present at 4:30 am when the call came in that Keiko had died. Unfortunately that broadcast was a pooling of ignorance.

well its not good.. just giving out any reasons.. we would never have known if there was no research done on it .

Some animals are kept in captivity for a good reason- to help them breed to raise their population numbers. I do not like animals that are kept as pets for people look at unless it is to raise awareness. Was Keiko kept for pleasure?

I am saddened with this news. But as far as I know animals like Keiko should be freed and and be set to the wild. This is not impossible that many animals could die in such illnesses like pneumonia because with the environment we have and devastation's this is really possible and likely could also harm human as well. I hope this will not comes to worst and other animals should be well taken care of.