Tilikum

Tilikum. Photo provided by cetabaker.

## Family

### Calves

Kyuquot, *Nootka IV's Calf (1992)*, *Taku*, *Nyar*, *Nootka IV's Stillborn (1994)*, *Gudrun's Stillborn (1996)*, *Unna*, *Kalina's Stillborn (1997)*, *Sumar*, Tuar, Tekoa, *Haida II's Unborn Calf (2001)*, *Nakai*, *Kohana*, Ikaika, *Skyla*, *Taima's Miscarriage (2005)*, Malia, Sakari, *Taima's Stillborn (2010)*, Makaio

### Grand-Children

Trua, *Unna's Stillborn (2006)*, Nalani, *Unna's Miscarriage (2009)*, Adán, *Victoria*, *Kyara*

Tilikum *(pronounced till-EH-kum)* was an approximately 35-year-old male Icelandic killer whale who lived at SeaWorld Orlando. He is considered to be largely responsible for the death of senior trainer Dawn Brancheau in February 2010, an incident that sparked debate about the ethics of keeping orcas in zoological settings. Overall, he was involved in the deaths of three people. He is most famous for being the star of *Blackfish*, a 2013 film that claims that orcas are not fit for life in aquariums. Tilikum was also the most successful breeding orca in captivity, siring at least 21 calves, 7 of which are alive today. He passed away after succumbing to a progressive form of bacterial pneumonia on January 6th, 2017 at SeaWorld Orlando.

## Capture & Early Life

Tilikum was an Icelandic killer whale who was likely born sometime around 1981. On November 9th, 1983, he was captured from Berufjörður, Iceland.  He spent a day on the boat before arriving at the Hafnarfjörður Aquarium to be trained. While there he met two other recently captured killer whales, Nandu and Samoa.  At one point, Tilikum attacked an Icelandic trainer when he refused to move between two pools. He tore a chunk out of the trainer's wetsuit.

## Life at Sealand

Tilikum was moved to Sealand of the Pacific on November 11th, 1984. He joined the park's two resident females, Haida II and Nootka IV. Tilikum was brought in as a replacement for an unnamed male who had died the previous year.

At Sealand, the three whales were deprived of food when they didn't perform or cooperate, and spent the nights in a "module". The module was a small, metal holding tank 26 feet in diameter, and 20 feet deep. The whales would spend up to 14 hours at a time in this module. The three often fought, and Tilikum in particular was often subject to aggression from the two females. Both eventually fell pregnant to him.

### Death of Keltie Byrne

On February 20th, 1991, 21 year old Sealand part-time employee Keltie Lee Byrne was walking along the edge of the pool after a show had just finished when, for reasons unknown, she fell into the pool at approximately 1:20 pm. She attempted to exit when one of the three whales in the pool at the time, Nootka IV, Haida II, or Tilikum, grabbed her by the foot and pulled her back in, according to witnesses. For approximately ten minutes, all three whales batted Byrne around the tank, dragging her underwater. It should be noted, however, that the level of Tilikum's involvement in this behavior is unknown, as many witnesses frequently confused the three whales with one another. Sealand employees attempted to get Byrne out of the pool with a pole, life buoys, and nets, but were unsuccessful. They also attempted to distract the whales and cue them to still, which was also unsuccessful. Byrne was not able to be retrieved for another two hours, by which time Byrne was deceased. The coroner listed the cause of death as drowning due to forced submersion by killer whales.

New safety standards were imposed upon Sealand for continued killer whale keeping after an inquiry, but Sealand put all three whales up for sale in September of 1991.

### Birth of Kyuquot

The aggression between the whales grew worse as Haida's pregnancy progressed, and Tilikum was eventually driven into the small medical pool. He was kept there, as there were fears that aggression would escalate if he was let back into the main tank. On December 24th, 1991, Tilikum's first calf, Kyuquot, was born. Tilikum was still kept in the medical pool to prevent possible aggression towards the calf.  Tilikum was never allowed to interact with Kyuquot.

## Life at SeaWorld Orlando

### Move to SeaWorld

In November of 1991, SeaWorld applied for a display permit for all three Sealand whales. On January 3rd, the display permit was still pending, so SeaWorld applied for an emergency permit to import Tilikum into the United States, under the grounds that he could not be adequately cared for at his current home. Part of this emergency permit included a video put together by SeaWorld, which featured footage of Tilikum's deplorable state in the Sealand holding tank. The video's narrator voices concern of not only his mental wellbeing, but his physical wellbeing in such a habitat. If the permit was not accepted, it was SeaWorld's responsibility to either send Tilikum back to an appropriate facility in Canada, or back to his original capture site in Iceland. The possibility of Tilikum returning to Iceland was investigated. Ultimately, it was agreed that returning him to Iceland would not be feasible, as he could be carrying diseases foreign to Icelandic waters. Additionally, it was determined that he would be unlikely to survive such a release.

Regardless, SeaWorld's application was accepted on January 8th, 1992, under the condition that Tilikum not be displayed until a public display permit was accepted. Tilikum was transferred to SeaWorld Orlando the following day.   Upon his arrival, SeaWorld made it a priority to increase the consistency of Tilikum's training and improve his weight. The training procedures used at Sealand relied on food deprivation and punishment, whereas SeaWorld's had evolved to rely on positive reinforcement. This, alongside careful monitoring, would ensure a smooth transition to the new environment and social group. Tilikum quickly took on a sub-dominant role within the pod. At this time, two female killer whales, Katina and Taima, shared the role of matriarch. Katina displaced Tilikum often, a trait that persisted for the majority of Tilikum's life. Taima, however, was considerably more tolerant of Tilikum and the two were frequently paired together.

### New Calves

Despite Katina's attitude towards Tilikum, their first calf, Taku, was born on September 9th, 1993. Taku would go on to grow into a very large bull thanks to his father's genetics. Tilikum and Taku did not have too many interactions, potentially due to Taku's reliability during waterwork-oriented parts of shows, which Tilikum did not participate in.

Another female, Gudrun, gave birth to Tilikum's first female calf, Nyar, on December 31st, 1993. The first few months of Nyar's life were normal but trainers eventually noticed that she was experiencing delays in her mental development and motor skills. As these problems became more obvious, Gudrun's behavior took a turn for the worst and she attempted to drown Nyar several times. Trainers inevitably intervened, separating Nyar from her mother. Absent of a mother, Nyar was placed with other whales, including her father, Tilikum. Tilikum was very gentle with Nyar and took great care not to harm her. Unfortunately, Gudrun passed away on Feburary 21st, 1996, and in turn, Nyar's health rapidly deteriorated. She passed away on April 1st, 1996.

Katina and Tilikum's second calf, Unna, was born on December 27th, 1996. Sumar, Taima and Tilikum's first calf, was born on May 14th, 1998. Tuar, whom Tilikum sired with a female named Kalina, was born on June 22nd, 1999. Unna, Sumar, and Tuar were frequently grouped together and, though they did not interact with him frequently, took on their father's gentle nature as they matured.

### Death of Daniel Dukes

At approximately 7:20 AM on July 6th, 1999, employees at SeaWorld noticed something draped over Tilikum's back when they arrived that morning. It was the nude body of a dead adult man, and the Orange County Sheriff Office was called. The body was removed, and identified as Daniel Patrick Dukes, a 27 year old man. Somehow, the man had bypassed park security and entered Pool G where Tilikum was being kept. Dukes removed his clothes before entering the pool, which were found nearby. It is unknown why or how Dukes entered the pool.

An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was drowning, and no drugs or alcohol were found in the man's system. The medical examiner was unable to determine whether Tilikum had drowned the man, or if he succumbed to the cool water temperatures of the killer whale pool, developed hypothermia, and then drowned. Dukes' body was noted to be covered in "numerous abrasions" caused by Tilikum. It could not be determined whether these happened prior to or after Dukes' death. The death was ruled accidental.

### Additional Calves

Taima and Tilikum's second calf, Tekoa, was born on November 8th, 2000.

At this point in time, SeaWorld was pioneering many new procedures to streamline the breeding of killer whales, including artificial insemination. Several bulls, including Tilikum, were trained for voluntary sperm collection. SeaWorld's hard work paid off and Nakai was born on September 1st, 2001 through. Nakai and his mother, Kasatka, lived at SeaWorld San Diego, located on the United States' opposite coast. Nakai's birth as a healthy, happy calf encouraged SeaWorld to make more attempts at artificially breeding their killer whale population. Another female at SeaWorld San Diego, Takara, gave birth to a female calf named Kohana on May 3rd, 2002. Kohana was also bred artificially. These were the only offspring of Tilikum's to be concieved via artificial insemination.

Ikaika, Katina's third calf sired by Tilikum, was born on August 25th, 2002. Skyla was born to Kalina and Tilikum on February 9th, 2004.

Tilikum and Taima's third calf, Malia, was born on March 12, 2007. Tilikum first met Malia on March 24th, 2007, under the close watch of Taima. At the time, Malia was only 12 days old, making it Tilikum's first interaction with a newborn calf. After observing for several minutes, Tilikum eventually entered the pool with Taima and Malia. Taima displaced Tilikum at first but tensions lessened as time passed. Taima didn't allow Tilikum to get too close to the calf during this encounter, but Tilikum displayed interest from afar, swimming quickly around the pool as he lagged behind the pair. As Malia matured, Tilikum began to spend more time with her and Taima together, during and outside of shows.

### Desensitization Training

At some point between Tilikum's move to SeaWorld in 1992 and 2010, SeaWorld began to conduct desensitization training with him. It seems that even though SeaWorld never intended to do in-show waterwork with Tilikum, this training was conducted out of the interest of safety. SeaWorld's current Vice President of Zoological Relations and former killer whale trainer, Kelly Flaherty Clark, described this controlled training as "limited exposure waterwork." Clark continued:

> "We wanted [a] rehearsal of Tilikum moving away from somebody in the water... a reinforcement history attached with leaving a person in the water because we understood... that he had in his life two interactions where there was a person in the water with him. Neither one of those interactions turned out favorably. So, being responsible and safety conscious, we wanted to establish a reinforcement history with leaving a person. So, we asked Tilikum to come into a pool that is in a restricted area. We raised the floor of the pool... to where he was incapable of swimming but capable of moving, and we had the trainers point him away, we had trainers calling him away [.]"
>
>

Despite this training taking place, SeaWorld did not consider Tilikum to be water desensitized. The exact reasons for this are unknown, but it can be assumed that SeaWorld did not believe that enough training had been conducted or that Tilikum simply did not respond as hoped.

***The following section contains graphic descriptions of human injuries and death.***
### Death of Dawn Brancheau

On February 24th, 2010, Tilikum and 40-year-old senior SeaWorld trainer Dawn Therese Brancheau participated in a "Dine With Shamu" show in the G pool in the early afternoon. The show was completed, and Brancheau went to a concrete ledge at the south side of the pool to interact with Tilikum. She laid down on her stomach to interact nose to nose with the whale. Guests were still in the dining area at the time.

At 1:37pm, Brancheau was pulled into the water by Tilikum. There was never a clear reason why he did this. Trainers at the scene and that had worked with him earlier in the day testified that nothing was amiss and Tilikum showed no indication that he would behave aggressively.

Right before she was pulled into the water, trainer Jan Topoleski noticed Brancheau struggling to free her ponytail from Tilikum's mouth, and pressed the alarm button. A moment later, she had been pulled under. There is confusion between witnesses whether Tilikum initially grabbed her ponytail, her arm, or possibly both. Though the incident was caught on camera (both by SeaWorld's underwater cameras and by park guests), clear footage of Brancheau entering the water does not exist. Once Brancheau was in the water, Tilikum began dragging her around, acting agitated. He briefly let her go at one point, but grabbed her again.

A few minutes after the alarm was sounded, trainers arrived at the scene, and attempted to get Tilikum to let Brancheau go. Food was thrown into the water, and Tilikum was asked for control via slapping the water. Tilikum did not respond. Nets were then used to coral Tilikum into the smaller F pool. He still did not let Brancheau go. Two other whales were in the nearby E pool. The whales were removed, and Tilikum was then corralled into that pool. Finally, Tilikum was brought into D pool. He still would not release Brancheau, so the floor of the pool was raised, beaching him. With the assistance of nets, Brancheau was retrieved from Tilikum's mouth and removed from the pool approximately 40 minutes after entering the water.

Emergency services were called, and Brancheau was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy conducted the next day found that she had suffered from fractures in her ribs and vertebrae, and her lungs were full of fluid. Her scalp and one of her arms had been completely severed from her body, and had to be retrieved with nets. The cause of death was determined to be drowning and traumatic injuries, and the manner of death was accidental.

## Later Life

### Initial Response

After the death of Dawn Brancheau, Tilikum was pulled out of shows. Contact between him and his trainers was restricted and guard rails were placed in between the killer whales and trainers during close-contact husbandry sessions. Tilikum continued to receive tactile reinforcements in the form of firehoses and fountains instead of touches and rubdowns. Direct tactile was offered during very specific circumstances, such as when Tilikum was fully removed from the water by the medical pool's fast-rising floor.

### Loss of Taima and Birth of Makaio

On June 10th, 2010, Taima passed away following complications with the pregnancy. The calf, which had been sired by Tilikum, had positioned itself within her uterus in a way that made birth nearly impossible. The calf was stillborn. Despite her efforts, Taima could not expel it, leading to her death. Taima's absence lead to a shift in the social structure, leaving Katina as the wholly dominant female. As stated before, Katina had a tendency to displace Tilikum. Between this shift, the incident in February, and the loss of one of his closer companions, many things were changing in Tilikum's life very quickly.

The last orca calf to be born at SeaWorld Orlando, Makaio, entered the world on October 9th, 2010. Despite SeaWorld's killer whale breeding program continuing into 2016, Makaio was the last calf to be sired by Tilikum. Even though Tilikum had shown success with artificial breeding, SeaWorld halted the spread of his genes altogether due to a number of reasons, such as controversy and genetic bottlenecking within their orca population. Tilikum was eventually able to interact with Makaio under Katina's careful supervision.

### Return to Shows

Tilikum returned to shows on March 30th, 2011.  Additional safety precautions were added to accommodate his presence in the front show pool following his return. Trainers were not permitted to stand on the slide out when Tilikum was preforming, indicated by a small red light in the center of the stage. At this time, he was often paired with his grandson Trua and his daughter Malia. His age began to slow him down. Tilikum spent much of his days resting. His performances were often limited to One Ocean's "splash" segment or, rarely, the ending segment, as well as the occasional Dine with Shamu program.

## Decline & Death

In March of 2016, SeaWorld announced that Tilikum was suffering from a treatment-resistant bacterial infection in his lungs, and had been acting increasingly lethargic over the past few weeks. Tilikum's primary veterinarian, Dr. Scott Gearheart, gave some insight into his health:

> "We take blood from him at least once a week, sometimes twice a week to... monitor what kind of inflammation is going on. Blood gives us a really nice picture into his health status... Some of the issues that we're continuing to deal with are his chronic teeth issues, but, probably, the one that is most concerning is that he does have what is believed to be a respiratory condition that is extremely difficult to treat. The species of bacteria that we identified in Tilikum is a species that is found in a variety of species, including wild cetaceans... We use a variety of oral antibiotics and antifungals that the trainers painstakingly every day, several times a day, administer in [his] fish. If Tilikum would have shown up with this disease in the wild, there's no doubt in my mind that he would have been gone a long time ago.
> I wish I could say I was tremendously optimistic about Tilikum... but he has a disease which... is chronic and progressive and at some point may... cause his death. We have not found a cure for this disease at this point."
>
>

Kelly Flaherty Clark, who worked closely with Tilikum at that time, stated in the same video that "[Tilikum is] getting older and... what I know is that every day I am here, and every day that these amazing veterinarians are here, he will receive the best care." Throughout 2016, SeaWorld uploaded multiple videos updating the public on the progression of Tilikum's health, his treatment plan, and his daily activities. In June 2016, SeaWorld posted a more positive update, where Clark stated that Tilikum was swimming more and regaining weight; the team was "cautiously optimistic."

However, months later, on the morning of January 6th, 2017, Tilikum passed away. Following his death, SeaWorld released a statement and posted a short video in his honor on multiple social media platforms. A necropsy revealed that Tilikum did indeed die of a respiratory disease, specifically bacterial pneumonia. Following the necropsy, several parts of his body were sent to various universities to better the scientific understanding of killer whales. One of these universities was Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, where biologist Patricia Brennan studied Tilikum's reproductive organs, most likely acquired due to his successful siring history.

## Personality

Despite his reputation, trainers often remarked that Tilikum was a "gentle giant" of sorts, possessing a calm demeanor and enjoying quiet time with trainers. He was fond of a wide variety of interactions, such as tactile from multiple trainers at once, tactile with brushes, water sprayers, and, in general, receiving positive attention from trainers. Some of his favorite enrichment devices included a rope barrel, the boomer ball, kelp, and his blue disc. He could occasionally be very vocal, especially during play. Due to his submissive nature, Tilikum did not get along with all of the whales at SeaWorld Orlando, but he seemed to have a preference for a few, such as Taima, Trua, and Malia. Although Tilikum was generally very docile, he had a tendency to become possessive over toys and other whales, making retrievals and separations difficult on some occasions.

## Appearance

Tilikum's head and chin were round but tapered near his rostrum, which was distinctly bulbous; in general, he had a long face in comparison to other whales. His tall dorsal fin had a notch near its base and completely collapsed towards his left side. His eyepatches were notably large and oval-shaped, and he had two freckles on the top front of his left eyepatch. His tail flukes curled slightly, with the left fluke lobe curling more intensely inwards. Overall, he was a very robust whale, with a slight "hunch" to his back.

## Trivia

* Tilikum had a few nicknames, such as "Tilly" and "Big Man."
* Tilikum's name comes from a group of First Nations peoples in the Pacific Northwest. In Chinook Jargon, the word (sometimes spelled "Tillicum") means "friends, relations, tribe, nation," and "common people."

## Galleries

* **Photos** of Tilikum
* **Videos** of Tilikum

## Transfer History

Tilikum's Transfer History
 Capture Boat (Guðrún?), Iceland
 Hafnarfjordur Aquarium, Iceland
 Sealand of the Pacific, British Columbia

## References

1. ↑ Progress Report - Iceland
2. ↑ Tilikum's Profile
3. ↑ 'Dangers to Trainers'
4. ↑ 'Keltie Byrne Coroner's Inquest'
5. ↑ 'Playing Whales Kill Trainer Before Shocked Crowd'
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 'The Tilikum Transaction'
7. ↑ 'Letter from Iceland to SeaWorld'
8. ↑ 'Letter from NMFS to SeaWorld'
9. ↑ 'Orange County Sheriff's Office Investigator's Report Case Number 99-052361'
10. ↑ 'SeaWorld Orlando - Taima, Newborn Malia & Tilikum (March 2007)'
11. ↑ 'Orange County Sheriff's Office Investigative Report Case Number 2010-016715'
12. ↑ 'Autopsy Report for Dawn Brancheau'
13. ↑ 'Tilikum Returns to "Believe" Show Finale at SeaWorld Orlando 2011'
14. ↑ 'SeaWorld Killer Whale Tilikum May be Dying'
15. ↑ 'Tilikum Tales'
16. ↑ 'New England Scientists Enter Political Fray To Defend Odd-Sounding Science'
*This page was last updated on: January 9th, 2024*