#orca captvity
Gender:Male
Pod:N/A
Place of Capture: Born at SeaWorld of Florida
Date of Capture: Born on November 8, 2000
Age at Capture: Captive born
Current Location: Loro Parque, Spain
On November 8, 2000, captive born female Taima gave birth to her second calf, a male named Tekoa sired by the Icelandic male Tilikum.
Taima was a good mother for the most part, but after some months, began displaying aggression towards Tekoa like she did with her first son, Sumar. This resulted in the pair being separated, and after various unsuccessful attempts at reuniting the pair, they were separated permanently.
However, the captive born female Kalina, who had just given birth to a calf of her own, a male named Tuar, took it upon herself to care for Tekoa. The two calves became close friends until they were both moved to the Texas park in April 2004 where they met many new whales.
In February 2006, Tekoa was moved to Loro Parque in Spain with 3 other young whales; Skyla, Keto, and Kohana. Tekoa is one of the more submissive whales at the park, and can often be seen with rake marks covering his body.
On October 6, 2007, Tekoa was involved in an incident with trainer Claudia Vollhardt. It was reported that Tekoa crashed into Vollhardt before dragging her down. He then proceeded to grab her arm, bringing her down again before bringing her to the surface. Two fellow trainers were able to pull her from the water, but not before she suffered several serious injuries including two breaks to one of her forearms and injuries to her right lung. After this incident, certain protocols were put in place that restricted what trainers could do with Tekoa.
Today, Tekoa is 14 years old and still remains at Loro Parque.
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