SeaWorld’s oldest surviving orca born and raised in captivity has recently died.
Kayla, a female orca suddenly started to be ill on Saturday afternoon and ultimately passed away, theme parks made an official statement this morning. She had lived a long life of 30 years.
Kayla arrived in the world at SeaWorld Antonio in 1988, and ever since she had only known the boundaries of a tank. The freedom of swimming in the open sea was a distant dream for her. After giving birth to her first calf in 2005, Kayla was taken to SeaWorld’s Orlando park only a year later. Her young one had been faced behind, and as a result, she tragically died at just 2 years old.
In November 2018, Kayla had been misused for special encounters where guests could pay extra to meet her closely and also feed her.
The truth is Kayla isn’t the only Orca who died under captivity. Her death, in fact, follows a decades-long trend of captive orcas dying young or under unforeseen circumstances at SeaWorld theme parks. Since the 1960s at least 49 orcas have died in the park and most of them were babies. In the free ocean, female orcas live an average life of 50 years old and can live up to a long 90 years.
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