Ok so I have a question about SeaWorld and Tilikum. I get that a lot of things in Blackfish were made up or exaggerated and stuff. But one thing still confuses me and concerns me, and that is…why did they think breeding Tilikum was a good idea after the tragic death of Dawn Branchau? Because every book I’ve ever read about animal breeding (both in the context of pets and in the context of things like zoos and aquariums) has said that if an animal has severely harmed or killed a human you shouldn’t breed them on the off chance that it was caused by something genetic. Am I off base in thinking they maybe shouldn’t have bred Tilikum because he killed somebody?
Hey that's a really great question, so thank you for asking!
I think the main thing here is that everyone involved in the decision making are operating on the assumption the Tilikum's behaviour was the result of his learning history.
As far as we know, there is no genetic advantage to hyper aggression in the wild and Tilikum was a wild-caught whale. So it's not like he was a dog with selectively bred genetics that occurred for over thousands of years for specific behaviours.
From reports of people who worked with him, Tili was considered to be a really sweet and friendly whale. It was apparently really easy to get complacent with the protocols around him.
A former trainer told me about the time after a night show, where it was quite dark and late, she witnessed her colleague with him on the slideout. He was leaning right over Tilikum's rostrum to put sunscreen around his blowhole and melon (he often logged at the surface when he rested so they did this to make sure he didn't get any sunburn when the sun came up).
Basically, Tilikum was not usually an aggressive orca. But his history of abuse at SeaLand of the Pacific did predispose him to behaviours such as resource guarding. He would fiercely guard any enrichment or toys he was given - likely due to the history he had from being housed with the dominant females Nootka and Haida, who bullied him and never allowed him access to anything.
Maybe there was a genetic component to his behaviour but given that none of his offspring showed the same intensity or aggression that he had, it's unlikely it was.
I don't agree with how much they bred specifically Tilikum as I think it also significantly reduced the genetic diversity of the population. But I don't think his aggressive behaviour was genetic. Honestly Tilikum as an individual is a fascinating animal because of his contradictory behaviours and nature.
We can only speculate what his life would have looked like if he hadn't had such a bad start to life at Sea Land...
