July 6th
Today it is 18 years since a man was found dead in the back pool with Tilikum.
While anti-zoo books and films try to spin it as if Tilikum, the "deranged psychotic killer" aggressively ripped this man apart and "paraded him on his back as a trophy", the truth is likely something else entirely. I'm not a killer whale behavior expert and I never knew Tilikum myself, but I'm speculating based on people who did.
Daniel Dukes, a 27 year old man brought swimming trunks with him to SeaWorld, and stayed after hours to jump in the pool with a killer whale. In those days there wasn't as much security as today, so no one was watching the pool. The autopsy report reveals Mr. Dukes had no drugs in his system, so he wasn't "high" as some claim.
We will probably never know the reasons behind his actions, but it was unlikely to be suicide as killer whales weren't seen as "killers" back then, Tilikum's story wasn't well-known by the public, and Mr. Dukes couldn't possibly know this one whale was not trained for waterwork like the others. He probably thought he was going to swim with a killer whale as easily as the trainers in the show.
Tilikum's only exposure to humans in the pool had ended badly before. In Iceland, he was described as very sweet, but got angry once when he was to be separated from the other two whales, and pulled a trainer under and tore at his wetsuit. Not strange at all, he was an angry three year old and not a killer.
The next time - as he was never trained for waterwork, along with the other whales he lived with - a trainer fell in the small sea pen at Sealand of the Pacific. The three whales pulled her under until she drowned. But as the females were very dominant over Tilikum, who was a very submissive whale, it's unlikely he had a big part in her death.
Then eight years passed and he lived at SeaWorld, never with a trainer in the water unless separated by a gate. He had no reinforcement history with humans in the water, and had no idea how to act with them. What was a fun, rewarding and interactive creature on land simply became a flimsy, dangly object to him in the water. They don't look the same, they don't act the same in the water as on land.
So in jumps a man Tilikum has never seen before, in weird clothes he has never encountered before, and tries to interact with him. Daniel Dukes was not as severely injured as Dawn by any stretch, simply bruises and postmortem lacerations. The water in the killer whale pools is only 12 degrees celsius. It takes about an hour to die in that water temperature, far less to become stiff, immobile and get difficulty breathing from the cold.
The cause of death was drowning. Whether that was by inability to swim in the cold water or being dragged down by Tilikum, we will never know. But many of his injuries, including avulsion of his scrotum, happened after death. I've seen it described that in the morning when the scene was discovered, he was on the back of Tilikum, who was making distress calls. He could not understand why the human in his pool was not moving, and was very distressed. The anti-zoo activists call this "parading him around", "look at what I'm capable of". But think of cetacean behavior for a minute.
When a cetacean sees another animal in distress, they will push them to the surface to breathe. I've seen adult dolphins towing a dead baby dolphin on their backs in a desperate hope to get it to live. It is a very base instinct in these animals. There is no such thing as "parading a victim around on your back" in whale behavior. If Tilikum killed him on purpose, he would have been found at the bottom of the pool. And a quote by a friend, who’s done more research on this than me:
“So some scientists are hailing Tilikum as a hero for trying to save Dukes. Of course, being an orca, this would be a clumsy effort since the man is so much smaller than him, so he would have to use his teeth to maneuver the man, hence the injuries on Duke's body.“
Autopsy report
I don't wish to disrespect Mr. Dukes or his death. Tons of people have unfortunately already ridden on his death and three others (Keltie, Dawn and Alexis), in order to further their agenda, which in many cases, involves big money. What Mr. Dukes did was stupid and reckless, but he does not deserve to have his death being used in that way.
Tilikum is the most misrepresented whale that has ever lived. Keltie's death he likely had nothing to do with. Daniel he might have drowned, but most likely saw first as a toy and then displayed distress and was very upset that the man wasn't moving. Dawn he most definitely killed, violently, but this was most likely because of the alarm ringing, startling him to pull her in, and the more distressed and loud the people got over the situation, the more desperate Tilikum was to "keep Dawn safe", close to him. When her body was under a tarp and he was in the water again, he refused to leave her.
The trainers who worked with Tilikum described him as a “child in the body of a six ton whale” (anthropomorphic but to get the idea). How affectionate and fun-loving he was, much more so than most adult males. His behavior, throughout his last 26 years at SeaWorld, does not in any way match that of a deranged, psychotic serial killer, hating his life or hating his trainers. Not only that, it's ludicrous and anthropomorphic in the extreme.
Continuing the quote above:
“So if this is the case, it is plausible that Tilikum may have, (in a terrified, confused and panicked state) have tried to exhibit the same natural behaviour when Dawn slipped into the water. In both cases, a human fell into the water (where they were not supposed to be) and both were in distress. If Tilikum's pod mentality kicked in, his knee-jerk impulse is going to be to get them to the surface. And if a massive creature like Tilikum attempts to do this with a puny human, (and in a state of extreme duress) it is going to appear to us to look horrifically violent. [...] What I find intriguing about both of these cases, is that if Tilikum's natural pod instincts were kicking in and he was instinctively trying to get the two humans to the surface for air, this would mean that Tilikum considers humans to be part of his pod. If this is true, it discredits everything in the ARA playbook. [...] Some random info about Tilikum that I've gathered from online and conversations with people: sources seem very consistent that Tilikum was a favourite among trainers at every facility he has ever lived in. He was sweet, special, sensitive, playful, childlike, and very fascinated by humans and eager to please them. If a trainer was doing something random near the pool, they'd turn around and Tilikum's face would be peeking out of the water at them, watching attentively. He also seemed to thrive when he performed in the shows - mostly splashing. You probably already know that Tilikum was not allowed to perform after the accident for a while. (I believe it was pressure from activists) The trainers began to notice that when Tilikum was not performing, he failed to thrive. His health deteriorated. (physical and psychological) Until they finally said, just screw it. Let's put him back in the shows. His first show back, Tilikum was welcomed by a sold-out crowd and received a standing ovation. His health and well-being bounced back after that.“
