Some Things, just Stay with you Forever..
15 years of Morgan the orca
Introduction: Morgan's Story
Fifteen years ago today, orca Morgan was taken in by the Dolfinarium in Harderwijk, the Netherlands. According to multiple reports, the weakened animal had been swimming in the Wadden Sea near Lauwersoog for at least a week already. Not long after, the first footage emerged. Filmed from a ship belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality (then known as LNV). It quickly became clear that this was a young orca. Contact was made with the local dolphinarium to develop a rescue and care plan for the animal that would later become known as “Morgan” worldwide. The Dolfinarium in Harderwijk had both the experience and facilities and was willing to carry out a rescue operation. And so it happened: She was rescued and transferred to the park in Harderwijk to begin her rehabilitation. When you watch the footage from that time, it’s truly incredible that Morgan survived. She was extremely emaciated. So underweight, in fact, that her age was underestimated; she was thought to be 2 to 3 years old, while it later became clear that she was very likely 3 to 4 years old. When she arrived at the Dolfinarium, she weighed just 430 kilograms and measured 3.57 meters in length. A healthy orca of her age should have weighed at least 660 kilograms according to the veterinarian at the time (and since she was thought to be younger, the difference was likely even greater!). She had almost no body fat and was also diagnosed with pneumonia. It was evident this animal was on the brink of death, and many experts believed she wouldn’t survive her first week
I remember that time like it was yesterday. Anyone who has read my earlier blogs and articles knows that I usually try to keep my personal emotions and opinions in the background and stick to the facts. But this time, I want to share a more personal account of Morgan’s story, as I am part of it as well.. an animal I’ve followed and visited for over the past 15 years. And of whom I wrote articles and shared her life with other people ever since she first appeared at our Dutch shores. Her story has always touched me deeply. And now, 15 years later, she’s still alive and well at Loro Parque. She’s even recently become the mother of a beautiful calf named Teno. Some things just stay with you forever.. Fifteen years ago, I was in the middle of my animal care education. I already had a strong interest in marine mammals, thanks to internships and visits to various parks, but orcas had always been my favorite animals. As a child, I was obsessed. I had orca toys, figurines, drew them constantly, and wrote stories about them. That passion also never left me. The confirmation that there was an orca swimming off our Dutch coast came on June 22, 2010; my birthday. The very next day, she was rescued by the Dolfinarium. At the time, I happened to be on vacation in France visiting Marineland, one of only two parks in Europe (together with Loro Parque) housing orcas at that time. The news that there was now an orca in our very own Dolfinarium made me incredibly excited. I even cut my trip short and returned early from Marineland just to see her. With the French orcas still fresh in my mind, I became one of the first people to lay eyes on Morgan. But all that excitement quickly vanished. I was overwhelmed with sadness when I saw Morgan in her initial state. She was so thin… she barely resembled an orca. She didn’t have the shape or behavior of an orca. She was weak, apathetic and deathly ill. To give you an idea how bad she looked; I even wondered whether it would have been more humane to euthanize her to spare her from all this suffering. That was, after all, common practice with stranded porpoises and dolphins.
Above: Morgan in Dolfinarium Harderwijk, the Netherlands, shortly after her rescue. Here she had already increased a bit of weight after her initial rescue. 
But, miraculously, Morgan began to recover at the Dolfinarium. To this day, I give full credit to the Dolfinarium team. They brought an animal back from the edge of death. With a team of experts and intensive care, Morgan gradually regained strength to the point that the next step had to be considered: Now what? The ultimate goal of rehabilitation is to return the animal to its natural environment. But where was that? Where did Morgan even come from? Given her initial state she could have crossed half the World to end up here in the Netherlands, and orcas are known to live in about all of the world’s oceans. Their diet and communication depend on their location, so this is a vital key to know before releasing an animal. Release is also not always feasible. There are many reasons why a release may not be possible. The animal may have a disability or chronic health issues, requiring medication or a modified environment. Young animals that never learned to hunt or survive in the wild also aren't suitable for release. In Morgan’s case, all of the above applied. It was suspected early on in Harderwijk and later confirmed: Morgan is deaf. That may very well explain how she became separated from her pod in the First place. A team of independent experts later concluded that she would not survive in the wild without her original family group or ‘pod’. Orcas live in complex social structures in the wild — for young orcas, that’s essential for survival. Reintroducing her into a random wild pod was deemed far too risky and unrealistic.
Efforts were made to trace Morgan’s exact pod. Techniques included matching her DNA, vocalizations, and dorsal fin images to existing databases of studied orca populations. Unfortunately, no definitive match was ever found. The next step was to find Morgan a permanent new home where she could live among other orcas. Staying in Harderwijk wasn’t an option. There was no space, nor any other orcas. That was never the intention either. The fact that Morgan would not be returning to the wild didn’t sit well with everyone. In fact there was widespread backlash, even internationally. And to this day, it remains a controversial topic. Various animal rights groups emerged, questioning the Dolfinarium’s intentions. The "Free Morgan Foundation" played a major role in this. They stood outside the Dolfinarium with protest signs. I even spoke to some of them myself. I asked whether they were aware that experts had determined she likely wouldn’t survive in the wild. Their reply? “Better for her to live one day in the wild and then die, than spend years in a dolphinarium.” Unbelievable.. That response made it painfully clear: this isn’t about Morgan. They would rather see her die prematurely in the wild than live a healthy, long life in human care. This isn’t about the animal, it’s about their ideology and winning the argument. That’s deeply troubling, especially when you consider how much time, care, and emotion the Dolfinarium staff invested in saving her. The very same team that received death threats from activists and were labeled animal abusers and murderers, just for taking care of a sick animal in need.. To me, that’s the world turned upside down.
A court case was even filed to determine Morgan’s fate. The verdict (and those of the many cases that followed over the years) concluded again that Morgan simply could not survive in the wild. She was moved to Loro Parque on November 29th, 2011 after months of delay caused by animal activists. She was integrated into the already existing orca Group at Loro Parque’s habitat called “Orca Ocean” and has lived there ever since. I was there to document it all and I have visited her over the past 15 years, First in Dolfinarium Harderwijk and after that in Loro Parque. Today, she has lived at Loro Parque for 14 years, which is the majority of her life. Despite her disability, she lives there in a social group of orcas. In fact, she’s the dominant orca of the group. Every day, a team of trainers, caregivers, veterinarians, and specialists is there for her. Custom training methods have even been developed to ensure she’s fully included in activities despite her deafness. And to make things even better; just two months ago, she gave birth to Teno, a healthy son. Still, animal activists have continued to protest against Morgan’s transfer to Loro Parque. Even today, they are filing lawsuits and spreading misinformation about Morgan’s condition. Over the years, I’ve debunked these falsehoods time and again. By visiting Morgan, documenting what I see and bringing it out to the public. And I will continue to do so. I simply cannot understand how activists pour so much time, energy and money into an animal that is clearly living a good life, in a family group with her offspring in one of Europe’s best zoological facilities. Loro Parque is a facility with the highest standards for animal care and welfare. I cannot for the life of me understand these animal activists. Fifteen years of lawsuits, demonstrations, flyers, campaigns… and every single time, the court rules against them. If they had spent even a portion of that money on building an orca sanctuary, they might have actually helped animals that now truly need it. I recently visited Morgan and Teno again; both as a guest and behind the scenes, and documented everything I saw. Including a new interview with the team at Loro Parque. Read, watch, and decide for yourself.
Above: Morgan and one of her caretakers during an educational presentation at Loro Parque in Tenerife, she has come very far since that first day in Harderwijk.
Teno
In February 2025 it was confirmed by Loro Parque that Morgan was pregnant. This was already suspected by regulars of the park and several other people on the internet due to some recently taken photos of Morgan showing her with a reasonably larger belly than she normally appeared to have. This public announcement was made quite late, as the estimate was that she could give birth in late February or early March already. Of course animal right activists reacted quite negatively on this news, but so did some other people, even pro-zoo ones. As Loro Parque became controversial in the last few years for having several orcas living at the park pass away in a short amount of time. Meanwhile in France the only other park that houses orcas in Europe closed its doors. This park named dwindling visitor numbers; (quite possibly also during activism), but also a law that would become active in 2026 in France that prohibits the use of orcas in presentations as the cause for the closure. Leaving Loro Parque as the only zoological facility in Europe with orcas as a species. Should they continue to breed with no other facilities left to house them? This was one of the questions that was raised online and at several outlets. With all these ongoing issues in the news the last few years, orcas under human care again became a “hot topic” in the media. As was the announcement of Morgan’s pregnancy. On March 31st 2025 it finally happened. Morgan gave birth to a male calf. The calf was born headfirst, which is unusual and not without risk. Normally calves are born tail-first to prevent drowning. Luckily everything went well and the calf appeared strong and healthy. On the footage of the birth it is also shown that Morgan assists the calf to the surface for his first breath. Notable was the fast and transparent communication of Loro Parque during Morgan’s pregnancy and the months after the birth. With many updates in form of photos and videos appearing on their social media outlets. They also responded to people’s questions about the pregnancy and birth. Where in the past the park remained a bit more in the background regarding updates and announcements, this time the public was fully included into the process. Something that the park was praised for online. They even let the public send in names and vote for the final name once the gender of the calf was confirmed. A stark contrast were articles released by animal activists or media that seemed to be influenced by the animal activist agenda. “Another life condemned to captivity” is one of the actual titles used. After the birth followed a very critical period. The first thing that had to be made clear was if Morgan had enough milk production this time around, as with her first calf she had little to none. At first the calf appeared to be nursing only in short bouts, which could mean it was not successful in getting enough milk, but soon enough these bouts got longer, which indicated the calf was nursing properly. This was later confirmed aswell. A milestone for the team and the whole of Loro Parque! The previous three calves born at the facility had to be handraised by the trainers due to complications, but now for the first time a mother was raising her own calf from the very start in Orca Ocean!
Interview
As with the last article I interviewed Dr J. Almunia to get some more information and clarifications. To get a better perspective on the situation I subjected him to the following questions:
How are Morgan and Teno doing now?
They are doing very well. From the beginning Morgan was attentive and an exemplary mother, like with her first calf. Teno has been following her very closely from the start and there are frequent nursing events. He seems satisfied and all the signs are saying he is doing very well. We do not have exact measurements like blood work or weight yet as this time there was no intervention necessary from our staff and at this point everything is going perfect, so we won’t intervene in such ways.
How and when did you discover that Morgan was pregnant?
We have always done frequent ultrasounds on the females to know when they are about to ovulate and when to separate them from the males. This way we do not need to use contraception, which may be harmful on a long term. At some point we measured a change in hormones and discovered a fetus in Morgan, it was already several months old at this point.
Last time, Morgan’s pregnancy was unplanned — how was it this time?
It was a natural mating and not planned. It did come right at the moment as we were discussing with our vets to stop separating Morgan and give her the chance to become a mother again, as this is a part of their natural behavior.
What preparations were made during Morgan’s pregnancy?
As the birth came closer the staff started doing nightshifts. The calculation of the birthdate is always difficult, but as we measure hormones and ovulation we thought we had a pretty good estimate. Yet it still took much longer than expected. This was actually in that regard the longest recorded orca pregnancy under human care, up to 5 or 6 days longer than the previous longest recording at Seaworld. As soon as the birth was approaching we housed Morgan in the A pool and prepared everything for the calf. Also in case we needed to step in again and handraise the calf or perform medical treatment etc
How did the birth go? Was everything as expected?
It went quite well, though this was a headfirst birth, which is a bit unusual but not unheard of. It went very fast, normally it’s within 24 hours after the signs of birth are imminent. In this case the specialized vets had just enough time to arrive. The birth started around 5 am, because of that we have some very clear footage of it as well. Morgan did very well.
Morgan had issues with milk production in the past — how was it this time, and how was it monitored?
In the wild it is quite normal that there are some complications with the first birth. This does not mean the same problems reoccur the second time, though we were of course well prepared for that scenario. At First the nursing was very short, indicating that it was perhaps not very successful. Then the nursing became longer and what was an even better indicator is that Teno was asking for milk by bumping his head against Morgan’s mammary area, nursed and then did not ask again for a while. Therefore indicating that he was satisfied. If he was not satisfied he would have kept asking for milk more frequently.
Is Morgan a good mother?
She has been an exemplary mother from beginning, very attentive with good maternal instinct. Which might indicate that not all maternal behavior is learned in orcas, but certainly also instinctive. As Morgan was quite young when she was rescued by the Dolfinarium and did therefore not have any experience yet and she was also probably too young to fully comprehend maternal care. When we had to intervene with her first calf people told us “of course she was not fit to be a mother, she was way too young to have learned any maternal care”, but this is nonsense. It was in fact the lack of milk production that made us intervene last time, Morgan’s maternal behavior has always been very good.
Is Morgan currently the dominant individual in the Group?
Yes she is, as she is the only female currently. The balance in the group has been shifted by loss of some animals, including the other females. Adán and Tekoa are fighting for second place. Adán is very close to Morgan and always has been, Tekoa does not have this social bond with Morgan, but is much bigger, so he tries in that regard. This will probably settle in a few months and I expect to Adán’s favor
Is Teno’s growth and development progressing normally at this stage?
As Morgan is raising Teno by herself this time we cannot weigh or measure him yet. We mainly rely on visual growth and observation of behavior. At the moment he looks and acts healthy is nursing properly and is growing as well as very energetic. We can only truly start to weigh him when he can slide on a scale voluntarily, which would be much later on when his training starts, but everything seems nominal at the moment.
Can you tell us something about the calf’s behavior during these first months?
The first weeks he was completely focused on his mother, following her and nursing frequently. Now he is starting to be much more independent. Exploring a bit more on his own and developing curiosity. In the First weeks he was just following Morgan when we switched them to different pools, but now he has a mind of his own and had a short period where he refused to switch pools, in which the trainers had to try and motivate him to go. This is a lot better already luckily. This evolution of detachment of his mother is interesting. As he is not trained yet we cannot really use any positive reinforcement yet such as food or toys. Being with his mother is the only positive reinforcement in the beginning of course. We try to encourage him and build his confidence by opening the gate and allowing him to explore as well as presenting things such as toys, gelatin and ice. This has worked in other parks with very young dolphin calves.
Have any specific measures been taken in the enclosure since birth?
As the birth approached, Morgan was separated from the adult males for obvious reasons. No other special adjustments were needed to the enclosure.
Has Teno met any other orcas at this point?
Only visually though the gates and of course through vocalizations. It will take a few more months before we will introduce them and of course in very small steps with a lot of caution as he is so small.
Is Teno’s father known?
We suspect it might be Keto, but at this point it’s not possible to take a blood sample. It also does not have priority for us as the genetics are mainly interesting when you want to breed with an animal. Teno is related to the only female in park and way too young for breeding at the moment so we are not in hurry to find out. When he is trained for blood samples we can check this at some point. For now his health is the focus
Are there any risks or concerns you’re keeping a close eye on?
Not at this time. Our trainers and caretakers have shifts of observing the behavior and nursing of Teno, but there are no specific concerns at this time.
Is Teno involved in any scientific research?
He was almost involved in one from birth! We wanted to do a study with cells from placenta, but it sank to the bottom of the pool after the birth and we couldn’t retrieve it fast enough sadly. We do have 24/7 audio recording in the habitat, which will be used in monitoring the evolution of vocalizations. In the beginning the sounds of a calf do not make much sense, but then they will start to imitate the other animals. We have had all systems operational since a couple of weeks before the birth. When any other park or scientist is interested we can also share all observations we have made so far.
What does the (near) future look like for Teno? Are there still expansions planned for the orca habitat for example?
He will start to show interest in and then eat fish from about 6 to 9 months old. At that point training can start, or perhaps a bit earlier when we use toys or ice as reinforcement. There has been a plan for an expansion of the orca habitat for some years, on a plot of land next to the park. This however was the plan when we had 6 or 7 animals. Now we have only 3 adult animals. Currently we also have no permit yet, this can take 5, possibly 10 years. We also do not know what the situation is at that point when coming to orcas under human care, since we are now the only park that houses this species. Once this permit is required we can then access the situation and go from there. We do have a wish list present of all the things we want to include into this possible new habitat, such as a wave machine or other enrichment.
There has been significant criticism online, including from animal activists and popular media, regarding the deaths of several orcas in a relatively short time at Loro Parque — including Morgan’s previous calf. What can you tell us about this?
I think we have been the most transparent of all the facilities that house orcas in the illnesses, cause of deaths, necropsy reports etc. when it comes to our animals. We take a lot of care in sending the remains as fast and fresh as possible to an independent university in Gran Canaria, who are absolute experts in their necropsies and finding out what happened to the animals.
We ourselves have approached a team of independent vets to find out the cause of death of all our orcas and to find out if these deaths were natural or not. Their result was a series of reports that deemed all causes of death natural and not influenced by being under human care. These reports were also presented at the orca symposium in Tarifa to other vets and experts and have been published and shared to other vets all around the world. We have nothing to hide when it comes to that. These deaths were unfortunate, but all had different causes:
Skyla had an intestinal torsion. This happens in the wild and this has happened to orcas under human care. It is an unfortunate event, but it cannot be treated once discovered and strikes really fast. Skyla was otherwise a very healthy animal.
Kohana had a heart malformation, where the connection between the heart and the arteries did not close fully. Normally this is the case in fetuses who still get blood supplied from the umbilical cord and this connection closes after birth, usually within 4 to 5 weeks. In Kohana this didn’t happen. There was no way to know or discover this and even if we knew, this was not something treatable with surgery. Would she have been born in the wild with this condition she would not have lived very long, as wild orcas live in much more extreme conditions, dive much deeper, have territorial fights and perform very extreme hunting maneuvers, all exposed to the elements. Under human care she was never exposed to such extreme conditions, which means this probably even extended her life by a decade or possibly more. So rather being her cause of death, living under human care probably extended her life by quite a bit. It was a ticking time bomb in this case and could have happened anytime.
Keto had a specific unknown bacterial lung infection. His health was deteriorating for some time and vets couldn’t find what was causing it. We do blowhole cultures frequently, but this bacteria could not be cultured by our conventional methods. In the end we sent a sample to some experts in Spain who found out the exact bacteria, but culturing this bacteria took more than 45 days. Keto in the end passed of acute and very severe pneumonia related to this bacteria. We were simply unable to identify this bacteria in time and when you cannot identify something you cannot treat it directly. We tried several antibiotics, but this was something very specific of which we know have a better method for the future. This can also help other orcas in the world, wild or under human care.
Ula’s death was very tragic and we were struggling with her intestinal health for a long time. There were periods that food intake was very difficult with her. In the end the actual cause was an incomplete intestinal torsion and severe infection. We called all the experts we could find and her diet was monitored very closely. We did everything in our power to cure her, but just as she seemed to do better she passed away.
In the end it was all just really bad luck, as these deaths were not linked and deemed natural causes, uninfluenced by their situation under human care by independent vets. We are aware about a lot of rumors and stories are circling on the internet and even one or two of our former vets talks negatively about us and the deaths that occurred here at Loro Parque. One particular vet was on a holiday when one of our young females became incredibly ill. He however refused to come back from vacation to treat the animal. We had to fly over one of the Seaworld vets to treat her and in the end the animal passed away. This former vet also did the necropsy report on said animal – the only necropsy report that was not done by an independent university – and could not find a cause of death for the animal that died under his responsibility. After this debacle he was let go as we felt his intentions were not in the best interest of the animals. Now he is very vocal against orcas under human care. He was also not present at the day we presented the reports of the necropsies at the orca symposium, but arrived a day later. We feel this would have been a great opportunity to discuss the reports with other vets, experts and even our staff, but so far there hasn’t been any cooperation anymore.
What is your view and role in the current situation unfolding at Marineland Antibes in France?
When the French government announced a new legislation that would ban displaying orcas to the public it seemed more than fair that Marineland started looking for a new location for the animals. As the main goal of a zoological facility is of course displaying animals to the public and as the orcas took up almost half of their park, staying operational was not logical at all. They found a new home for their animals in Japan, but animal activists blocked this transport by filing a lawsuit, delaying the verdict and involving the government. Eventually Japan was out of the picture.
At that point we were approached by the French government to share the details about our facility and if we were willing to take in the animals if necessary. Our answer was and still is yes. The moment the activists blocked the transport this became an emergency situation for us – these animals need a place to go and receive proper care by zoological experts. What is ironic to me is that Marineland had about 4000 animals on the grounds. Sea lions, fishes, sharks, turtles, birds, but the only animals they have trouble finding a new home for and where the permits were denied are the orcas and dolphins. You do not see the activists pleading and blocking the transfer of a shark or sea lion, interesting to say the least..
In the end only 2 options were deemed viable for the animals, which were a sanctuary and Loro Parque. As there is no orca sanctuary operational currently or even in existence, both the French government and Marineland contacted the Spanish government to transport the orcas to Loro Parque. Permits were requested and quite soon after denied by the Spanish government. The reason 12 given to us was that we do not have the space to house more animals. This confused us as we have more than enough space and have housed more animals in the past. We have asked how they have determined this conclusion and they claim to have written a report and used EAAM standards to calculate how many orcas and dolphins we should be housing. We are in fact using the same guidelines already and under these standards we would have more than enough room for the animals, which is very confusing to us. We have requested to see their scientific report and the calculations they based their verdict on, but they have yet to show it to us. (According to them there is no need). So we are now working with our lawyers to get access to this report, which should be publicly accessible under the transparency law.
As currently their claim does not only mean the orcas of Marineland have no options left, but it also means they publicly announced our facilities are too small and we can no longer house more orcas or dolphins in the future and under their ideology have even housed too many in the past. Which simply is not the case. It’s important to us to set that straight.
We are also still more than willing to house the 2 orcas and 2 dolphins that need a new home. We have the experience, staff and facilities. It is a shame that more and more dolphinaria and other parks housing cetaceans are attacked by animal activists or are even forced to close their doors. You are not taking away the real problem. Take France for example; Yes Marineland is closed now. But thousands of dolphins are still killed in nets in and around France yearly, far less people care about that than this Marineland case that is making headlines. This has not changed with the closing of Marineland. The only thing that has now changed is that way less people are aware of it, or even care as they will never see a dolphin up close.
Observation
I visited Morgan and Teno behind the scenes to see how they were behaving and how they were being cared for. We were first invited to observe a training session with Morgan and Teno in the main pool, (the biggest in Loro Parque’s pool system). This appeared to be a play-session with many toys presented to them as enrichment such as pool noodles, ice cubes and other items. Teno was swimming closely to Morgan at all times, but did explore to some extend by himself, however never straying far from his mother’s side. Morgan was very calm and responded well to the trainers. Little Teno also interacted with the trainers, especially when items were presented to him, you could see he showed clear interest, even when no food was at play here (as he still nurses from his mother) which indicates that he is already developing a bond with his caregivers outside of the motivation of food, a very positive situation. Overall this was a really good start of the day and already showed some very good care techniques and how calm and familiar both animals are within human care. (The next day after the orca presentation we also witnessed Teno’s first true training session, where he responded to the target for the first time under big smiles and great enthusiasm of the trainers). We were allowed to watch the pair underwater for quite some time through the windows that are installed below the main stage. We watched Morgan and Teno in two different pool systems. They were swimming together closely at all times. I observed Teno nursing from Morgan and the two were also very curious, coming to the glass to watch us and interact with us. Later we also got to observe them outside from the backpools. They were active and made use of the entire pool system they were swimming in at that time. They did not swim in circles and surfaced at different places, not just in one spot. They also occasionally turned over bellyup. There was no reoccurring pattern that you could identify as stereotypical. I observed social behavior between the two such as nursing, playing together and Teno bumping into Morgan’s belly with his head, (related to nursing as well). Whenever trainers or other caretakers were near Morgan would act curious and approached them on her own, even outside a training setting and with no rewards present.
Findings
To me Morgan and Teno appear to have typical Mother-calf behavior as I have seen with many other marine mammals. Teno resides closely to Morgan, especially swimming under her belly, the two touching each other all the time while in mother-calf position. Morgan seems to be an exemplary mother, keeping watch over her calf, even when he swims away for a few meters. Teno is also shedding his skin already, which results in many visible patches when you watch him up close. Orca calves are born with a brown, almost orange hue, which turns into white as they shed their skin. They seem to have a very healthy relation with their trainers and caretakers, which is clearly not only motivated by food (which animal activists often claim when discussing marine mammals under human care). We also visited the park as regular visitors a day after to see if there was anything different or any additional observations we could make.
Conclusion
Yes, I was also shocked when I heard about the various deaths at Loro Parque. I was also deeply disturbed by the different accusations that are circulating online, some even coming from veterinarians. How could this possibly be true? I’ve been visiting the park for 15 years, and the animals have always made an active and healthy impression! all of them! Before these incidents, the original group of animals had been living in Loro Parque since 2006 (which was almost 15 years at that point!) without any deaths or significant illnesses, and now suddenly multiple animals passed away in a short period of time. Could the park really be to blame? I'm not a veterinarian, and I can only go by the observations I’ve made myself. I’ve visited the park countless times over the past years. The care for the orcas has always been exceptional. The animals all appeared active and healthy, and the park has always been transparent about training, medical care, nutrition, and all other aspects of orca keeping and management. After I learned that an independent expert report had been conducted, and after reading the reports on the causes of death, I became convinced that many of the online accusations are simply untrue. The evidence is clearly documented, reviewed by at least two independent teams who are absolute experts in this field. I’m also definitely open to the possibility that some of the individuals speaking out against Loro Parque may have been influenced by animal rights activists or, as mentioned in the interview, by things like being let go from their job. That wouldn’t be the first time such things have happened in this field either. It remains a difficult issue. Once again, I am not a veterinarian and do not have the expertise to definitively say what is or isn't true, or which "side" is right. However, I am an animal caretaker, and I can go by what I’ve personally seen and observed. And at Loro Parque, those observations have pretty much always been positive. My observations and findings were no different on the days I visited the park as a regular guest. The transparency of Loro Parque and their staff, as well as their dedication and care for their animals and for nature in general, truly speak for themselves in my opinion. I strongly encourage everyone to personally visit zoos and other facilities that are being negatively portrayed by animal rights activists or extremists, and to form their own judgment. I believe even someone without much animal knowledge can see that the animals at Loro Parque are well cared for and definitely not being mistreated. I respect that there are different opinions about keeping animals under human care, but accusing people of abuse and making false allegations is a very serious matter and should not be taken lightly. Especially in today’s age of social media, it’s incredibly easy to portray an organization in a bad light and influence people with misleading information, manipulated images, and false statements. That is simply not right and absolutely not the proper way to push your own viewpoint. Just like in the previous article, I am happy to conclude that the recent allegations made by various animal rights organizations have once again proven to be false. Observe, learn, and above all: protect nature and its animals in every way you can!