Loro Parque Orca killed Trainer at Loro-Parque

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Zebraduiker

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Today, an Orca has attacked a 29 years old Trainer in the pool during a training session and probably killed him. Its not kwon yet, if the man drowned or died through the attack of the whale. He was found lifeless in the pool, some people tried to reanimate him, it failed, he was dead after they put him out of the water.

A sad tragedy at Christmas, but Orca Whales are dangerous animals, they are carnivors and no pet animals....
 
Oh no, not cool :(
I'm actually surprised you don't hear of this more often considering the number of orca acts there are.
 
Only a few accidents happen with orcas came to the public...I seems, that this whale ( not sure, but its possible ),was the same who has atatcked a female keper at the Loro-Praque two years ago. many, many accidents with orcas which come never to the public, happen at the Seaworld Parks in the USA. At Orlando, they keep a bull who has killed a trainer in 1991.
 
Soberingly i was there only a fortnight ago...Im certainly not anti-cetaceans in zoos but i did think that Loro P. placed far too much emphasis on the show element - in fact it is almost impossible to view the whales outside of the show itself.At Seaworld there are viewing windows.The point im making is that the interaction with trainers is almost entirely the point of it all,the more you have [particularly spectacular stuff],the greater the chance for a serious accident.Very sad tho, and it is easy to be wise after the event.
 
Orcas are the largest mammals kept in captivity, when you compare their care to for example to elephants which a lot of places are working towards complete protective contact, it is such a contrast, and rather surprising! However i do really feel for this keeper. Despite your views on Orcas in captivity this guy was living a dream job, but Im sure he died doing something he loved
 
Zebraduiker said:
Only a few accidents happen with orcas came to the public...I seems, that this whale ( not sure, but its possible ),was the same who has atatcked a female keper at the Loro-Praque two years ago. many, many accidents with orcas which come never to the public, happen at the Seaworld Parks in the USA. At Orlando, they keep a bull who has killed a trainer in 1991.
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This orca it's not the same, now the animal involved is "Keto" and the other one is "Tekoa"

Very sadly news anyway. R.I.P. Alexis:(
 
I've been keeping tabs on this story, and the information I've come across leads me to believe Alexis's death may have been entirely accidental. In short, I'm not ready to blame the whale involved just yet.

More specifically -- I've come across mention of two possibilities. First, a heart attack on Alexis's part. Second, an accidental collision which may have knocked him unconscious.

No one will know for certain until the autopsy results come back. I'm not making any kind of judgment call until they do.

Happier travels.
 
I' m inclined by an accidental knock, but the autopsy results confirm that has happened.
 
Updates

Good day,

I have some updates on this incident. It appears Alexis's death was indeed accidental. According to this news article (in Spanish, sorry...)

Sea World investiga la muerte del monitor del Loro Parque - Sucesos - La Opinión de Tenerife

...it appears cause-of-death was drowning. The trainer's body bore no signs whatsoever of the physical trauma which would have been present had this been a true 'attack.'

The story also had confirmation of the whale involved (Keto). He's a 14-year old captive-born male with no history of previous aggression whatsoever.

So, in summary: It appears this was NOT an "attack," Merely an occupational accident. I'm sure I don't need to remind everyone of the risks inherent in working with animals this large and this powerful. What would be simple play to them could easily kill one of us.

Happier travels.
 
Zebraduiker said:
Today, an Orca has attacked a 29 years old Trainer in the pool during a training session and probably killed him. Its not kwon yet, if the man drowned or died through the attack of the whale. He was found lifeless in the pool, some people tried to reanimate him, it failed, he was dead after they put him out of the water.

A sad tragedy at Christmas, but Orca Whales are dangerous animals, they are carnivors and no pet animals....
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It would seem this is a case of getting ones facts right before stating things which are not facts in this case a Orca attacking his trainer, we have had a few people knocking ZooChat because some of the members stating things which are unture and false so please lets try to keep only to the facts in anything which is stated on this forum.

Thank you.
 
silly question really, there are loads of stories about dolphins rescuing drowning humans, I wonder if the Orcas in the pool responded to him in anyway? would they understand that he needed to breath air and attempt to take him to the surface? they are very intelligent animals and it wouldnt surprise me if they did, or were ever observed doing this
 
@Mark. What I posted was the first information realeased by the DPA, the german media agency, and they wrote, the orca has probably attacked the man. I'm sure, the whale was involved in this "accident".

Nevertheless, one Woman was killed by an orca at Seaworld, one was hurt by an orca at Loro-Praqoue ( many more incidents with them happend at this park , so for a short time, noone was allowed to get into the pool with the whales, I hope, they will forbid it now forever )many tariners were hurt and attacked by orcas at the Seaworld Parks and in nature, orcas have atatcked humans and boats..Orcas are no pets, they are large, powerful carnivors. So everyone is getting into an orcapool with them, should not wonder, if he's being attacked by one of them. I think, its probaly the same story with elephants in captivity....
 
Zebraduiker said:
...and in nature, orcas have attacked humans and boats.
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is there a source for this? I was under the impression that there haven't been any authentic records of attacks on humans by wild killer whales -- but I'm prepared to be shown otherwise :)
 
Zebraduiker said:
I'm sure, the whale was involved in this "accident".
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But you have no proof and the PM on the guy says otherwise, you shouldn't be stating things as fact just because you're "pretty sure" the whale was involved. If you don't approve of FC with orcas that's fine, but don't try and make it sound worse than it is to prove yourself right.
I've got to say, I've never once heard you say a positive thing about anything on here. How can someone who works in a zoo get away with saying the stuff you do?
 
That the boy of the trainer has no signs of trauma doesn`t mean that the orca had nothing to do with his drowning. Actually, the fact that he drowned makes it very likely that the orca pushed him under water, just not hard enough to cause bruising. If he had a heart attack, he had not drowned, but there wouldn`t have been water in the lung, he would have stopped breathing before getting under water. It`s not very likely that a healthy young man who is trained to swim with orcas daily "just" drowns without a reason or from a cramp in the leg.
 
Surely if there's an orca forcing him under the water he would have struggled and it would have resulted in some bruising? They weigh a lot! Now I'm not saying it's impossible for the orca to have killed him (obviously it could have happened), but ZD shouldn't speculate on an issue like this and bash every zoo he seems to post a comment on when the guy had a PM and it said there were no signs of trauma.
 
That's bordering on slander. How someone who works in a zoo can get away with saying stuff like that, and indeed have the nerve to say it is beyond me. You have a serious attitude.
And that video of the woman riding the orca and then getting her leg almost bitten off? I guess that was a stunt as they "don't bite their human victims"? You said yourself they're large carnivores :rolleyes:
 
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