Killer-Whale Tragedy: What Made Tilikum Snap?
by ilene - February 26th, 2010 11:02 pm
Killer-Whale Tragedy: What Made Tilikum Snap?
By Jeffrey Kluger, courtesy of TIME
Something about SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau’s ponytail may have triggered the attack. That’s what an official at the Orlando marine park told reporters the day after the 16-year veteran at SeaWorld was killed by Tilikum, a 12,000-lb. (5,500 kg) killer whale. On Feb. 24, in the middle of an otherwise routine show, the 40-year-old trainer was standing at the edge of a tank when the 29-year-old animal leaped from the water, grabbed her by the ponytail and began thrashing her about. As horrified visitors watched both from around the tank and from the viewing window below, Tilikum then dragged Brancheau underwater to her death.
Officials treated the death as a homicide — though one with a decidedly uncommon perpetrator — and within two days, investigators had been to the scene, sorted out the rapid-fire sequence of events that led to the death and essentially closed their books on the case. But the question that remained unanswered — in addition to the matter of what should be done with Tilikum now — is why the animal lashed out. What goes on in the mind of so complex a creature that causes it to become so fierce so fast — and is there anything that can be done to prevent such tragedies? (See 10 infamous animal attacks on humans.)
Tilikum is not a first-time offender. In 1991 — eight years after he was captured off the coast of Iceland — he and two other killer whales drowned a trainer during a performance at Sealand of the Pacific in Vancouver. In 1999, a man who trespassed in SeaWorld after hours and apparently jumped in the whale tank was found dead the next morning, lying across Tilikum’s back. Is the big whale a bad seed? At least one marine-mammal expert thinks that yes, that’s at least part of the answer.
"When Tilikum was wild, he was a transient, not a resident," says Russ Rector, a former dolphin trainer who is now a fierce opponent of keeping any dolphins or whales in captivity. "Resident whales are the kind that live in a fixed place, like Puget Sound. Transients travel the world, eating dolphins, fish, other whales, basically anything that gets in their way." Such animals need to be particularly aggressive, both to establish territoriality when they’re passing through and to…
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW.