A year after his failed migration, Keiko died at the age of 26 or 27, apparently of pneumonia. Keiko’s activity levels increased to previous levels, thanks to regular trips with his carers outside the bay. “All the kids of the town wanted to touch him and swim with him.” Local authorities forbade people from approaching or touching him, and his trainers – who thought he may have caught an infection from his human admirers – took him to live in a new open pen. “At that time there was a crowd of people very close to Keiko,” says Simon. “After a few days, he became inactive, staying near a small boat, possibly to avoid the large and steadily increasing crowd of people now seeking his attention.” “When Keiko arrived in Norway, he actively sought out human company, swimming to boats and people,” say the researchers. However, his film-star status and love of humans were to bring to an end his stint in the wild. Keiko managed to migrate to Norway for most of August, arriving in apparently good health. And after physical contact at the surface, Keiko swam away, seeking out human company on the tracking boat. He was seen diving among the wild orcas only once, on 30 July 2002. In contrast, wild orcas spend most of their dive time between 50 and 75 metres. The tracking devices showed that he spent most of his time above 4 metres, and most of his dives were less than 26 metres. Again he didn’t feed, although he did start to make dives. Two days later he was led back out to sea. Vets extracted a sample from his stomach – the transparent, slimy liquid they found suggested Keiko had not fed. But lacking the necessary social skills, Keiko at first mostly floated motionless at the surface, facing towards the wild pods several hundred metres away.Īfter 10 days, he returned of his own accord to his penned-off area in a nearby bay.
This time, his trainers would hide below deck when Keiko approached in an attempt to minimise human contact. In 2002, he was fitted with tracking devices, and once again led out to join the wild orcas.
Yielding to this pressure, Keiko’s owners transferred him to Iceland and in the summers of 20, he was trained to follow a boat out into the open water where wild orcas were feeding. “There was a strong public pressure to release Keiko to the wild, preferably to his ‘family’ group in Iceland,” say the researchers.
The film’s success engendered an international letter-writing campaign, Free Keiko, which sought to release him into the wild. It was during this time, in 1993, that Keiko made animal stardom when he “played” a leading role in the hit film Free Willy, which tells the story of a boy who befriends and eventually releases a captive orca. Despite efforts to integrate him with wild killer whales in Iceland towards the end of his life, he proved unable to interact with them or find food. The killer whale, whose real name was Keiko, died in December 2003, at about 26 years old. “He could swim as much as he wanted to, had plenty of frozen herring – which he was very fond of – and the people that he was attached to kept him active.” “We believe the best option for was the open pen he had in Norway, with care from his trainers,” says Malene Simon of the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, who participated in efforts to reintegrate the cetacean in the wild and is lead author of the study. Researchers now say attempts to return him to the wild were misguided. The killer whale star of the Hollywood movie Free Willy had to be cared for by humans even after he was released and he never successfully integrated with his wild kin. These movies strike the right balance - not movies for toddlers, not movies for teens, they're perfect for that short, in-between stage.Keiko, star of Free Willy, in playful mood We're talking big adventures, big laughs and maybe even a musical number or two. But most importantly, they all have to be fun and entertaining, since all those thematic elements are lost on kids in this notoriously fickle age group. The very best ones also deal with issues that many kids experience in their daily lives, like the complexities of friendship, the feeling of being underestimated by adults or the need to belong. The best movies for tweens meet them where they are: They show that kids are sophisticated enough for a step-up in seriousness, but won't terrify or disturb them too much.
It's hard to find tween-appropriate movies and tween TV shows that thread the right needle. The other half of the time, they're still sensitive to big jumps in scariness, intensity or peril. Half the time, they're longing to demonstrate their maturity and move beyond their old princess movies and cartoons. If you have a 10-, 11- or 12-year-old, you know that things get tricky when it comes to entertainment.