Only days after it was announced that the oldest-known killer whale in the wild, Granny, had died, one of SeaWorld’s main whale attractions, Tilikum, has also passed on.
No — check that, “passed on” is wrong. It would be more accurate to say that Tilikum was murdered slowly over a span of 33 years by SeaWorld, living its life in a bathtub. He died alone, having never tasted live fish or even real seawater for most of his life.
It’s a crime that Tilikum had to die to finally get his freedom.
The average age of a Killer Whale is 50-90 years (with 1 recorded at 105).