To fully understand the life of Tilikum, you must go back to the very beginning. “Tilly,” as he is affectionately known, was born sometimes in the 1980s, somewhere off the coast of Iceland. At the time of his birth, there was a massive demand for killer whales, especially juvenile whales, to be put on display in various settings all over the world. On November 9, 1983, Tilikum was captured near Berufiördur, Iceland, and was sent to be held at the Harnarfjördur Aquarium, where he would wait to be sold. Five days later, two other juvenile orcas joined him, Nandu and Samoa.
Tilikum would reside at the Harnarfjördur Aquarium for roughly 6 months while in the interim, learning some basic behaviors. He would eventually be sold to Sealand of the Pacific, and arrived in his new home on November 11, 1984. There he would be joined by two females, Haida 2 and Nootka 4, who were roughly the same age as him (Zimmerman, “The Killer in the Pool”). But Sealand was a house of horrors for Tilly, as he was constantly raked and beaten up by the dominant females. To make matters worse, Sealand employed one of the worst training techniques possible: food deprivation (Zimmerman, “The Killer in the Pool”). If one of the three whales did not perform a behavior correctly, none of the whales received reinforcement. This would lead to obvious frustration among the whales, as two would not receive any kind of reward for going what they were supposed to.
To make matters worse, the orca “habitat” at Sealand, such as it was, was sadly unfit to house animals, let alone killer whales (Zimmerman, “The Killer in the Pool”). It was basically a glorified sea pen sitting in a harbor, with its water unfiltered. At night, all three whales were combined to “the module,” which was basically a small box just barely large enough to fit the three small orcas into. The whales were housed there at night, unsupervised to ensure that they could not escape should someone try to cut the net of their main pool.
Despite the poor training techniques of Sealand, and the suboptimal living conditions for the three whales, Tilly lived there for six years before disaster struck. On February 20, 1991, a part-time trainer working at Sealand named Keltie Byrne slipped and fell into the orca pool. None of the three whales had ever been trained in any kind of waterworks (where a trainer would interact with a whale in the water) or had even been trained in any type of desensitization at all (where a whale is trained to ignore a person being in the water with them. This is usually associated with a person accidentally falling into the water: this exact situation. Had the whales been received desensitization training, Keltie would have likely been able to climb out of the pool unharmed). The three whales curiously investigated this new object that had entered their environment. One of the whales lunged at her, grabbed one of her limbs, and dragged her underwater. All three whales eventually joined in, and Keltie drowned.
Now, the whale that made the first move toward Keltie has been described as the largest of the three whales, which is very commonly assumed to be Tilikum, considering how large he grew to become later in his life. However, as a young calf, Tilly was rather on the small side. In addition, he was always very submissive around females, and granted how notoriously dominant Haida 2 and Nootka 4 were, it is highly unlikely, given all these factors, that it was indeed Tilikum who grabbed Keltie Bryne first (Zimmerman, “The Killer in the Pool”).
Following the fatal accident, Sealand of the Pacific closed, and all three whales were to be sold. However, there was a problem. SeaWorld, the company that bought all three whales, had applied for an import permit through the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). SeaWorld urged the NMFS that since at least one of the two females were pregnant, that they should be allowed to import the male as soon as possible “in order to ensure a successful nursing and bonding of the female and the calf,” (“Letter from NMFS to Sea World,” PBS). But help wouldn’t come fast enough.
Tilikum became a father to his first calf, named Kyuquot on December 24, 1991. Immediately following the calf’s birth, Tilikum was confined to “the module” full time, where his health quickly deteriorated due to his lack of space, exercise, social interaction and overall pool living conditions (“The Tilikum Transaction,” PBS). When SeaWorld learned of the condition of Tilikum’s confinement, they applied to the NMFS for an emergency permit to import him, citing that “due to the potential health problems associated with that confinement and the potential threat to the mother and calf if the male returned to the main pool and attempted to interfere with the mother or calf,” (“The Tilikum Transaction,” PBS).
On January 9, 1992, Tilikum arrived at SeaWorld Orlando, where he met Katina, Winnie, Gudrum and her daughter Taima. A year later, Nootka 4 joined him in Orlando. Haida 4 and her calf Kyuquot were moved to SeaWorld San Antonio, where Haida 4 would spend the rest of her life (Kyuquot is still at SeaWorld San Antonio to this day). Quickly after Haida 4’s arrival, she would mate with Tilikum, but the calf would be stillborn, and she would die herself due to complications from the calf. Over the next five years, Tilly would father five calves, named Taku, Nyar, Unna, Sumar and Tuar.
After his arrival at SeaWorld Orlando, it was quickly decided that Tilly would not be trained in
waterworks, because he had never received desensitization training (Zimmerman, “The Killer in the Pool”). Also given his involvement with already one fatal accident, it was from day one at SeaWorld that trainers took extra precaution with Tilikum. No one was to enter the water with him under any circumstances (unless in a medical pool, where the floor could be raised very quickly).
On July 6, 1999, a dead man’s body was found one morning draped across the back of Tilikum, his body covered in bite marks and his genitals had been bitten off. The man was later identified as Daniel Dukes, and an autopsy found the cause of death to be hypothermia and drowning. The exact details of Dukes’ death are not entirely known, since he stayed in the park after hours, and drunkenly stumbled into the killer whale habitat (Savino, "Man In Whale Tank Was Drifter"). He likely fell or jumped into the pool that just happened to have Tilikum in it. It is not known if his injuries were sustained while he was still alive, or if it was post-mortem. One could logically assume he treated the body the same way as he had with the body of Keltie Byrne (and later Dawn Brancheau), where he acted like it was a toy, violently submerging it and dragging it around. Tilikum has also repeatedly been observed as being rather aggressive and possessive of his toys, and sometimes unwilling to release them (this is a behavior I have observed myself from time to time) (Zimmerman, “The Killer in the Pool”).
In early 2000, Tilikum became a father again, as Taima gave birth to Tekoa, her second half with Tilikum. Also around this time, Tilikum was first successfully used in artificially insemination (AI), where he fathered the Nakai with Kasatka, who lives at SeaWorld San Diego. This was an enormous milestone for SeaWorld’s breeding program, as whales would no longer have to be moved from park to park in order to mate. This would later open up opportunities to expand the gene pool even further, when a male living in Argentina could impregnate a female living in California. Tilikum would only father one more calf through AI, named Kohana with Takara in 2002.
Later in 2002, Tilly would father a third calf with Katina named Ikaika, and in 2004, he would father his first daughter, also with Katina, named Skyla. In 2005, Tilikum became a grandfather for the first time when Takara had a calf named Trua. He would become a grandfather again in 2006 when Taku fathered Nalani (a very rare case of inbreeding, and was an accidental pregnancy as Taku impregnated his mother, Katina). In 2007, Tilikum and Taima had a daughter named Malia. The three of them would be together almost all the time and Tilikum remained with Taima until she died in late 2010 (due to complications with a stillborn calf, who was also Tilikum’s). After her death, Tilikum would still spend a great amount of time with Malia. Also in 2010, Tilikum would father his last two calves, Sakari to Tekoa and Makaio to Katina.
On February 24, 2010, Tilikum’s life, and the life of everyone around him would change forever. Dawn Brancheau was working with Tilikum in a training session during the Dine With Shamu presentation. Following the conclusion of the training session, Dawn went to lie down on a shallow ledge, known as a slideout, to have a relationship session with Tilly. Dawn’s ponytail drifted into the water as she lay down, and Tilikum grabbed her by her hair. Just as he had with Keltie Byrne and Daniel Dukes, Tilikum likely used Dawn’s body as a toy (Zimmerman, “The Killer in the Pool”).
According to unreleased surveillance tapes, Dawn continuously struggled, and managed to get free twice and tried to swim to the surface (Zimmerman, “OSHA Goes After SeaWorld”). But each time, Tilikum would grab her and pull her down again to the bottom of the 24 foot pool. Before Tilikum would release her, Dawn had already died. Several trainers tried, and eventually were successfully able to coax Tilly into the medical pool, which has a quick-rising floor, so they could try to recover Dawn’s body. Even with the floor raised, Tilikum’s jaws had to be pried open before he would release her (Zimmerman, “The Killer in the Pool”). The behavior Tilikum displayed is very consistent with how he has been known to act with his enrichment toys. He has been known to be very violent and extremely possessive of said toys, and it is not impractical to think that Tilikum honestly thought that Dawn’s ponytail was indeed a toy. In addition, as sad as it sounds, it’s not unlikely to believe that Tilly thought Dawn’s entire body, and the bodies of Kelte Bryne and Daniel Dukes were also toys.
An eyewitness trainer, Laura Surovik as well as Chuck Tompkins, SeaWorld’s curator of zoological operations both testified to the Orange County detective that Tilikum was holding Dawn as if “she was his possession.” Tompkins also noted that trainers were only allowed to work with Tilikum from the edge of pools, and never did in-water interactions with him, citing the death of Keltie Bryne at Sealand in 1991. “He never showed any indication that he looked at you as a toy,” Tompkins said, but “I truly believe he looked at Dawn as an object, a toy,” (Edwards and Curtis, “Final report: SeaWorld trainer briefly broke free of Tilikum”). The official cause of death was determined to be blunt forces trauma and drowning.
In the wake of the accident, SeaWorld as we knew it changed forever. Immediately, SeaWorld announced that they would case waterworks, a decision that later became a mandate (that only applied to the Orlando park) by OSHA. SeaWorld completely analyzed and rethought the way that trainers would interact with not only Tilikum, but all their whales, companywide. In 2014, trainers began wearing safety vest that would provide the trainer with not only buoyancy, but also an emergency supply of oxygen (SeaWorld, “New, Custom Air Vests Enhance Safety For Our Trainers”). In 2015, the vests were reduced to simply belts, that would still provide the same potential-life saving abilities as the vest, in a more streamlined design. While it is not likely that these belts would have save Dawn Brancheau, they could be the difference between life and death should a different type of accident occur.
Tilikum did not perform in shows the rest of 2010, and would not against perform until March 30, 2011. But when he did again perform, it was completely different. Instead of trainers working with him onstage, they now could only do so behind a physical barrier. Trainers would give signals and reinforcement from in front of the glass surrounding exterior of the show pool. In addition, whenever Tilikum would enter the show pool (or more specifically, whenever the gate on D Pool would open, that would allow Tilly to pass through B Pool to access A Pool, the main show pool), a red light would come on onstage, and as well as at several locations backstage.₁
2013 saw the release of the movie, Blackfish, that would forever change the way that zoological facilities and specifically those caring for killer whales would be viewed publically. SeaWorld’s attendance would drop, and so would their stocks (CNN Money, "SeaWorld stock gets soaked, plunges 33%."). The way that SeaWorld was presented in the media was forever changed too. This is where Tilikum’s legacy and his role in the radical change of SeaWorld became inextricably connected.
The way the world will remember Tilikum will be as the star of the movie that nearly destroyed SeaWorld. As the whale that killed three people and the whale that animal rights extremists have used as their martyr for years.
When Tilikum died on the morning of January 6, 2017, so too did the last bit of the old SeaWorld. His death signals the beginning of the end, and he is the first orca to die since SeaWorld’s announced the end of their killer whale breeding program. Tilikum lived longer in captivity than any other male, (except for Ulises, who has been in captivity 36 years, and is estimated to be 38 years old), but ultimately, will be remembered as the whale who forever changed the world’s view on cetacean captivity. For better or for worse, Tilikum truly changed the world and inspired people, just maybe not always in the way intended.
Author’s Notes
For me, Tilikum is where it all started. He is the physical embodiment of not only my childhood, but my love of SeaWorld. I remember my first visit to SeaWorld in 2003, and subsequent visits in 2004, 2005, and so on, and every time that Tilikum would come out at the end of the Shamu Adventure, or Shamu Rocks America, I would get extra excited. In an era where one could possibly make the argument that the shows were more geared towards entertainment, with the phenomenal miracle that was waterworks, I was always inspired and moved by Tilikum more than by anything else.
I last saw Tilikum last on December 30, 2016. I have a couple pictures of him in the med pool, but I don't wish to look at them, because that's not how I want to remember Tilikum. I wish to remember him as seen in these pictures: happy, healthy, and doing the things he loved most surrounded by those who loved him the most.
While the world may believe Tilikum's lasting legacy to be the whale "involved" with 3 deaths, and the focus of the "documentary" Blackfish, that is never how I remember him. I will remember Tilikum as one of the sweetest whales ever. As the whale who forever changed my life, and inspired me to care not only about whales or animals in general, but about our world. Through Tilikum (and SeaWorld), I have become a conservationist and an environmentalist. I have fallen in love with so many amazing animals over the years, but none have ever touched my heart in such a way as Tilikum has.
₁ The statements made about the red lights are as a result of my personal observations made during personal trips to SeaWorld Orlando in August 2014, July 2015 and June/July 2016, as well as information gained through conversations with various trainers (such as Holly Byrd, Ashley Norigenna, Jackie, Kristen and many more). The routine for bringing Tilikum out of the backstage area is as follows: Tilly spent the majority of his time in E Pool, and to prepare him to perform, a trainer would open Gate 8, and would call Tilly over to the side of the pool in D Pool. From there, Gate 4 would open, to allow him to enter B Pool, and as soon as Gate 4 would become unlocked, the light onstage that was green would switch to red (as well as at several locations backstage, namely near G Pool), alerting everyone backstage that Tilikum was no longer in E or F Pool. Once in B Pool, Gate 1 would open, granting access to A Pool, the main show pool. It’s a complicated, long winded process, but one I have observed first hand roughly 15-20 times.
Works Cited
"Animal Training Department Shamu Stadium Area Manual." Seaworld.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2017.
Edwards, Amy L., and Henry Pierson Curtis. "Final report: SeaWorld trainer briefly broke free of Tilikum." Tribunedigital-orlandosentinel. N.p., 28 Apr. 2010. Web. 22 Jan. 2017.
"Letter From NMFS to Sea World." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2017.
Savino, Lenny. "Man In Whale Tank Was Drifter." Tribunedigital-orlandosentinel. N.p., 08 July 1999. Web. 22 Jan. 2017.
SeaWorld. "New, Custom Air Vests Enhance Safety For Our Trainers | SeaWorld®." YouTube. YouTube, 28 Apr. 2014. Web. 22 Jan. 2017.
"SeaWorld stock gets soaked, plunges 33%." CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 19 Apr. 2014. Web. 22 Jan. 2017.
"The Tilikum Transaction." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2017.
Zimmermann, Tim. "OSHA Goes After SeaWorld." Outside Online. Outside Magazine, 29 Oct. 2015. Web. 22 Jan. 2017.
Zimmermann, Tim. "The Killer in the Pool." Outside Online. N.p., 30 July 2010. Web. 22 Jan. 2017.
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