Shocking footage shows the moment a killer whale jumped from its enclosure in an attempt to ‘commit suicide’, according to onlookers.
The video of the orca, named Morgan, was captured by a tourist at Loro Parque in Tenerife and posted across social media – including the website of dolphin protection organisation Dolphin Project.
In an apparent attempt to take her own life, the shocking footage shows Morgan jumping out of her tank and slumping on a concrete slab out of the water.
Visitors to the park believe she was trying to kill herself, but park experts claim the whale’s behaviour in the medical tank is ‘normal’ – despite being seen banging her head against a metal gate just a few weeks earlier, The Mirror reports.
Onlookers say after the final show of the day ended, Morgan suddenly slid onto the slide-out and remained there for 10 minutes – and maybe longer.
Morgan was captured off the coast of the Netherlands in June 2010, and is currently owned by SeaWorld along with five other whales at the Canary Islands park.
Animal rights organisation The Dolphin Project said:
While we cannot explain the reason for her behaviour, the juxtaposition of a previously wild orca against the stark backdrop of the park’s performance area is unsettling, to say the least.
The Tenerife park also released a statement, saying there was nothing abnormal with the whale’s behaviour, and that the video was nothing but an ‘exaggeration’:
The video published by the Dolphin Project on its website is a new attempt at manipulation through exaggeration and dramatisation of a completely normal situation in which there is no problem for the animals.
While SeaWorld and its experts may technically be right, it’s difficult to have faith in their claims considering the park’s past.
