Morgan

Morgan on Oct. 12, 2017. Photo provided by Diva Flora Nikolova.

Morgan *(pronounced MORE-gun)* is an approximately 16 year-old female Norwegian killer whale who currently lives at Loro Parque. She was rescued on June 23rd, 2010, after she was found weak and emaciated near Ameland in the Netherlands at approximately 3 years old. After spending several months being rehabilitated at Dolfinarium Harderwijk, she was deemed unreleasable due to hearing loss and sent to live at Loro Parque permanently. She gave birth to a daughter, Ula, in 2018, although she unfortunately passed away just a few years later in 2021.

## Early Life & Rescue

Morgan was born to her wild parents in the waters surrounding Norway, likely around 2007 given her estimated age when she was rescued. On the morning of June 23rd, 2010, a lone killer whale was found by fishermen in Ameland, Netherlands, emaciated and struggling. A rescue team was sent on site to assist the young killer whale and she was subsequently transferred to Dolfinarium Harderwijk for rehabilitation. The whale was given the name 'Morgan'. It is unknown how or why Morgan split from her pod and travelled all the way down to the Netherlands, however it could likely be due to the fact that Morgan is deaf.

## Life at Dolfinarium Harderwijk

Morgan began her rehabilitation period as soon as she came to Dolfinarium Harderwijk. She was primarily treated for malnourishment, but also for dehydration. Morgan spent a year and a half at Dolfinarium Harderwijk, where she was also trained in husbandry. The pool that Morgan was kept in during her rehabilitation was not of ideal size, and once Morgan had gotten back to full health, it became clear that she had to be moved into a larger space. During this time, an independent team of experts concluded that Morgan would be unable to be released back into the wild. On October 12th, 2011, the Dutch Secretary of Agriculture announced that Morgan would be transferred to Loro Parque, a zoological facility located on the Spanish island of Tenerife, where she could live with others of her species for the remainder of her life. Morgan left Dolfinarium Harderwijk on November 29th, 2011.

## Finding Morgan's Family

During her rehabilitation period at Dolfinarium Harderwijk, many killer whale researchers came together in an attempt to locate Morgan's natal pod using various techniques such as attempting to match Morgan's acoustic repertoire to Norwegian killer whales, and by photo identification.

Scientists by the names of Heike Vester and Filipa Samarra were able to find a close match between Morgan and one group and some matches to other groups of Norwegian killer whales. This finding also supported the previous evidence that Morgan originates from the herring feeding population of killer whales occurring in northern Norway.

In their publication, Vester and Samarra mention having found good 'likely' matches to six known groups and an additional five possible matches to a group of Norwegian killer whales known as 'Group P' in Morgan's repertoire. However, due to the limited context and short recording time of the recordings from Group P, acoustic comparison was difficult. It could not be concluded that Morgan absolutely belonged to this group considering the fact that, given her young age at rescue, Morgan had possibly not fully developed her repertoire yet but it is considered likely that Morgan originates either from group P or a different group closely related to group P. (*Vester & Samarra, September 23, 2011*)

## Life at Loro Parque

Morgan arrived at Loro Parque on November 29th, 2011 where she met five other killer whales, Tekoa, Keto, Kohana, Skyla and Adán. Upon her arrival, Morgan was first introduced to Adán, a year old male killer whale at the park, and to a young female killer whale named Skyla. Since her arrival, Morgan has gotten along very well with Adán and the two remain closely bonded to each other. Morgan was later introduced to the rest of the pod; Kohana, Keto and Tekoa.

In May 2012, a team of veterinarians discovered that Morgan suffers a profound hearing deficit, meaning that she is partially or even fully deaf. Morgan has a difficult time responding to auditory cues such as whistles, but is very good at responding to hand or arm gestures which led her veterinarians to believe that she could be hard of hearing. An electrophysiological probe done on Morgan confirmed this. Because of her deafness, a new bridging system had to be installed in the killer whale complex for Morgan to be able to understand when she performs a behavior correct. The new system includes light boxes that flash whenever Morgan has been bridged.

In 2016 two videos surfaced showing Morgan beaching herself on the stadium's stage for a prolonged time and rapidly banging herself on the tank gates. The video spread around various media groups and started many discussions on the ethics of keeping killer whales in captivity.

In December of 2017, Loro Parque confirmed that Morgan was pregnant and due in early 2019. This announcement came as a surprise and a shock to everyone who had been following Morgan's story, as it had been intended for her not to be used for breeding. Shortly before her pregnancy news came to light, SeaWorld announced that they were transferring all ownership of the four killer whales owned by them to Loro Parque (Keto, Tekoa, Kohana and Skyla). Many theorize that the reason for the ownership transfer was to avoid controversy as SeaWorld had announced the end of their breeding program a year prior. Loro Parque initially announced that Morgan was due to give birth in January or February of 2019, but the birth of her first calf came much sooner than originally thought. Morgan went into labour on the morning of September 22nd, 2018, and delivered a killer whale calf a few hours later. This was Morgan's first calf.

## Calves

Morgan gave birth to her first calf on September 22nd, 2018. The calf was healthy and Morgan showed good maternal instinct and was attentive towards the calf, who began to nurse very quickly. About a day later, animal care specialists discovered that Morgan's milk production was lower than normal and not enough to sustain the calf. The calf was subsequently separated from Morgan and had to be bottle fed. It was at this time that Loro Parque announced that the calf was a female. Morgan remained interested in her calf and could often be seen waiting by the gate to the medical pool where her calf was kept. In January of 2019, Morgan and her calf were reunited and the female calf was given the name Ula.  Ula faced multiple health issues throughout her life and in March of 2021, Loro Parque announced that Ula was suffering from a gastrointestinal problem. Over the next few months, visitors noticed Ula had lost a significant amount of weight and had developed a visible indentation on her head just behind her blowhole, a condition often referred to as ''peanut head''. Despite Loro Parque's claims that Ula was getting stronger and healthier by the day, she remained underweight and her peanut head never disappeared. On the afternoon of August 11th, 2021, Loro Parque announced that Ula had died. Her cause of death was never officially announced, but they heavily suggested that Ula had passed away due to her intestinal issues. On November 4th, 2021, Ula's official cause of death was revealed as intestinal torsion in a ZEMBLA documentary. After the sudden death of Kohana in 2022, Loro Parque stated in a blog post on their website that Ula had been sick and suffered from multiple illnesses throughout her entire life, something that Loro Parque repeatedly denied when Ula was alive.

## Controversy

Controversy surrounds the rescue and rehabilitation of Morgan as the young whale was rescued with the provision that she would not be used for public display and that she would be released once her treatment had finished. Despite the original agreement that she would not be used for public display, Morgan was displayed by the Dolfinarium only two months after she was rescued. Multiple anti-captivity organizations and activists continue to lobby and advocate for the release of Morgan or for her retirement to a sea sanctuary to this day.

## Galleries

* **Photos** of Morgan
* **Videos** of Morgan

## Transfer History

Morgan's Transfer History
 Dolfinarium Harderwijk, Netherlands

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.freemorgan.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/report\_on\_further\_comparisons\_of\_morgan\_acoustic\_repertoire-final-2.pdf
2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p05e8MSqjs&ab\_channel=LoroParqueOrcas
3. ↑ https://www.laprovincia.es/sociedad/2018/09/26/morgan-retono-9452662.html
4. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IygJ6p\_szO4&ab\_channel=JeffreyVentre
5. ↑ https://elcotarro.com/?p=6332&fbclid=IwAR01hU\_RKYfGMk7ESC9SoDp6K34PKTXVnYD6KwzKvMMBioocIwrn8higENo
6. ↑ https://blog.loroparque.com/loro-parques-statement-4/?lang=en
7. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hScyNvPRkNo&ab\_channel=DivaFloraNikolova
8. ↑ https://blog.loroparque.com/loro-parques-statement-4/?lang=en