Kshamenk, the last captive orca in Argentina, has died at the age of 37.
He spent most of his life at Mundo Marino, a marine park in the seaside town of San Clemente del Tuyú. He was taken from the wild in 1992 when he was just four years old.
For the past 25 years,Kshamenk lived alone in a small tank after his tankmate, a female orca named Belen, died in 2000.
Animal rights organizations had been calling for his release for years. They said that his isolation and limited space were severely affecting his mental and physical health.
Activists often shared videos of Kshamenk drifting motionless at the water’s surface. Experts describe this behavior as a sign of psychological distress. Over the years, he also lost weight and showed other worrying signs of declining health.
Fought for his release
Canadian whistleblower group UrgentSeas, which campaigned for Kshamenk’s release, said on social media platform Instagram: “We fought and hoped for his release from those tiny tanks. He deserved better.”
Mundo Marino continued to use Kshamenk in performances despite growing pressure to move him to a sea sanctuary.
One option that had been discussed was a semi-wild sea pen in the Pacific Northwest, where another orca, Lolita (also known as Toki), was supposed to be relocated before she died in 2023.
Animal rights groups say Kshamenk’s death is another example of how captivity affects orcas, who naturally swim long distances and live in complex social groups in the wild.
Responses to Kshamenk’s death
“Kshamenk’s life was a sentence of loneliness and exploitation. His story proves orca captivity is deadly, no tank can replace the ocean,” People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said.
“The ways in which he was exploited went beyond simply being forced to perform. Staff members from SeaWorld were dispatched to Mundo Marino to forcibly collect his sperm so they could breed yet more captive whales,” Whale Sanctuary Poject said.
“They took what they needed and left him to languish. He had a son, Makani, who survives at Seaworld San Diego, and a daughter, Kamea, who died this year at SeaWorld San Antonio.”
“A powerful, intelligent being reduced to a tourist attraction, forced to perform and exploited for profit in a tank that could never contain his true nature,” Animal Save Movement said.
“Captured, isolated, stressed and used until his death. This was not a tragedy by chance, but the inevitable outcome of captivity.”
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theanimalreader.com
