847: The Truly Incredible Story of Keiko the Killer Whale
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What is the story of Keiko the Killer Whale?
I don't know about you, but you know what I think would feel great today? An animal story. And not one of the stories where the animals are some metaphor for human beings and we see ourselves through their actions and learn some important lesson. No, no, no, no. I'm talking about an old-fashioned animal story where you hear about some amazing creature in some surprising situation and that creature then does things that have such personality and seem so specifically them, you know, it just gets to you. I am pleased to say we have a story like that for you today. And the creature is not a dog or a cat or a bunny or a horse or any other lovable creatures you usually find in this kind of story. It's an orca, a killer whale, that we humans captured from the wild, took from his mother and trained to be completely tame and live alongside us.
This killer whale was so tame that at night, when his trainers went home and he was all alone, he would watch TV from inside his tank, He liked old Andy Griffith reruns and action movies. And that continued for years until one day we got the idea that maybe this killer whale didn't need to continue as a giant domesticated pet. Maybe it would be possible for him to lead a very different life in the wild again. Today's story comes from our co-workers at Serial. They, of course, have done so many remarkable series that have changed everybody's expectations of what you can do in a podcast. I have been sitting in on read-throughs of drafts of episodes of this new series for a year now. I'm one of the people who gives editing notes. And whenever we do one of these listening sessions, I have to say it's always one of the best parts of my week. I really love this story. One of my favorite things they've ever done. This new series is called The Good Whale. Six episodes long, including, I'm not kidding, a musical episode. Maybe I'll tell you about that later.
They launched their first two episodes this week. And we're going to play you episode one of their show right now. And then after the break, we have another story, not from Serial, but a story that we made about animals and what we expect of them. From WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Life. I'm Ira Glass. Danielle Alarcon, the novelist and journalist and host of Radio Ambulante, is the host of this new show for Serial. And with that, I will turn things over to Danielle. Here's episode one of their show.
How was Keiko captured and trained?
Our story begins in the early 90s with an orca named Keiko. He's just entering his teenage years, living at an amusement park in Mexico City called Reino Aventura, or Adventure Kingdom. He's not from there, but for the last seven years, a tank in this polluted, landlocked megacity more than 7,000 feet above sea level has been his home. Before that, it was a marine park in Canada, where he was bullied by the other orcas. Before that, it was a tank in a big concrete building in Iceland, where he was kept for about three years, unable to see the sky. And even before that, it was the North Atlantic, where he was captured and separated from his mom and the rest of his whale pod, probably when he was around two.
I don't think I really understood how traumatic this could have been until I learned that male killer whales are essentially mama's boys. And not just when they're young, but basically their entire lives. Even as adults, they might swim by their mother's side. They depend on her. A mother orca might catch a fish, bite it in two, and give half to her son. This kind of closeness is documented in male orcas well into their 20s or 30s. And Keiko was deprived of the chance to have that. At age two, Keiko would probably still have been swimming in his mother's slipstream, still mastering the language of his pod. He wouldn't have yet learned how to hunt on his own.
What was Keiko's life like at Reino Aventura?
Despite weighing more than a thousand pounds, in developmental terms, Keiko would have been just a baby, ripped from his mother, from everything he'd ever known, and from a life that may have been largely spent by her side. So of course it's hard to talk about a pool in a Mexican amusement park as a substitute for any of that.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the story of Keiko the Killer Whale?
0:01–2:24
2
How was Keiko captured and trained?
2:24–3:40
3
What was Keiko's life like at Reino Aventura?
3:40–9:27
4
How did the movie Free Willy change Keiko's fate?
9:27–16:38
5
What challenges did Keiko face while in captivity?
16:38–21:25
6
What efforts were made to rescue and rehabilitate Keiko?
21:25–25:15
7
How did public perception of Keiko evolve over time?
25:15–29:01
8
What ultimately happened to Keiko?
29:01–1:00:40