Keiko (orca)

Keiko (c. 1976 – 12 December 2003) was a male orca captured in the Atlantic Ocean near Iceland in 1979, and widely known for his portrayal of Willy in the 1993 film Free Willy. In 1996, Warner Bros. and the International Marine Mammal Project collaborated to return Keiko to the wild. After years of being prepared for reintegration, Keiko was flown to Iceland in 1998 and in 2002, became the first captive orca to be fully released back into the ocean. On 12 December 2003, he died of pneumonia in a bay in Norway at the age of 27.

Life

Keiko was captured near Djúpivogur, Iceland in 1979 at the approximate age of two and sold to the Icelandic Aquarium in Hafnarfjörður. At the time, he was named Siggi, with the name Kago given at a later date.

In 1982, he was transferred to Marineland in Ontario, Canada. It was at this new facility he first started performing for the public. He developed skin lesions indicative of poor health, and was also bullied by an older orca. Keiko was then sold to Reino Aventura, an amusement park in Mexico City, Mexico, in 1985. Keiko lived in a warm, chlorinated tank with artificial salt water. These conditions were more suited for dolphins, and due to this, his health continued to decline.

At Reino Aventura, he was renamed "Keiko", a feminine Japanese name that means "lucky one". The owners of the park did not want to continue using the name "Kago" due to it being pronounced identically to a Mexican slang term for defecation. "Keiko" was chosen for its similarity to his former name. At the time of his arrival in Mexico, he was only 10 feet (3.0 m) long.