Kiska Orca Obituary – Death: ‘World’s loneliest Orca’ Cause of death

The last captive orca in Canada, Kiska, who was once housed with the star of the movie Free Willy, has died in a tragic incident at a popular amusement park. Kiska, dubbed the world’s loneliest orca, had been completely isolated since 2011, which is considered torture for highly social creatures such as orcas, according to Phil Demers, an animal activist who had worked at the park. Kiska was captured in the North Atlantic in 1979 when she was just three years old and was taken to an aquarium in Iceland, where she lived with four other orca calves, including Keiko, the future star of the movie Free Willy. Kiska was then sold to Marineland, where she gave birth to five calves, all of whom died young. The Whale Sanctuary Project stated that the bond between a mother and calf is so strong that it is difficult to imagine the grief and trauma that Kiska must have experienced each time she lost a calf. Marineland’s announcement of Kiska’s death today expressed their mourning, stating that their nursing team and marine mammal specialists had done everything possible to assist in Kiska’s comfort. Animal Justice, a vegan animal rights group that campaigned for Kiska for over a decade, described her death as “heartbreaking” and demanded justice for the apparent unlawful suffering Kiska endured in her later years at Marineland.