Mourning at the Miami Seaquarium: The amusement park with sea creatures in the US state of Florida was unscheduled this Saturday. The reason is the mourning for the female orca Tokitae, also called Toki.
The killer whale, also known as Lolita, died on Friday afternoon (local time), as the Seaquarium announced on the short message service X, formerly Twitter. In the past two days, Toki has shown serious signs of being unwell. She was immediately treated medically and with the best possible means, but then died.
The reason for her death was probably kidney failure, X said. All who have dealt with the animal would forever remember its wonderful nature. The killer whale was an inspiration to all who knew its history and especially to the Lummi nation, who considered the marine mammal a member of the family, the statement said.
The Lummi are indigenous people who, together with animal welfare organizations, campaigned for the whale to be released back into the wild after more than 50 years in captivity. The planning for this logistically complex project has been going on for some time.
According to media reports, the animal received its indigenous name Tokitae from a veterinarian more than half a century ago. Translated, the name should mean “beautiful colors” or “beautiful day”. In some reports and also on the Miami Seaquarium website, the whale is also called Lolita.
Toki or Lolita became famous as the world’s oldest captive killer whale. Her tank at the Miami Seaquarium was also considered the smallest orca enclosure in all of North America.
For more than 50 years she could be seen there in shows and had to perform tricks – until in the spring of this year, after years of pressure from advocates of her liberation, the decision was announced to move her to Puget Sound, a bay in the sea, within the next one and a half to two years off the US state of Washington, to release. Washington is also home to the indigenous nation of Lummi.
However, the project was considered risky because the orca was to be transported over a long distance and was not used to freedom. Toki should first familiarize herself with the new environment in an enclosure in the sea before she was allowed complete freedom in the sea.
The resettlement was to be financed with $20 million that Jim Irsay, head of the Indianapolis Colts football team, wanted to provide for it.
But with Toki’s death, these plans are now obsolete. There is probably great sadness among the indigenous people and animal rights activists who had fought for their freedom for so long.
Theoretically, the orca lady could have lived in the open sea for a few more beautiful decades. Toki’s mother is said to be in her 90s and still living in the waters of the northern United States where the release was supposed to have taken place.
Toki was captured in those North Pacific waters in 1970 for a parade at the amusement park. At that time she was still a killer whale girl, about four years old.
Sources: Miami Seaquarium, “Der Spiegel”, “Bild.de”
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