Huge update on two orcas 'left for dead' in abandoned marine park
The two orcas that were 'left for dead' in an abandoned amusement park in France have potentially been given a last-gasp chance of survival.
Mother-and-son duo Wilkie and Keijo have been stuck inside an increasingly-dirty enclosure at Marineland Antibes ever since the theme park shut all the way back in January 2025.
Experts have regularly raised concern about the shocking conditions that the orcas have been subjected to over the past 16 months, especially since orca whales require a healthy marine ecosystem with cleanliness, lots of socialisation and plenty of mental stimulation.
Despite French president Emmanuel Macron reassuring wildlife activists that something would be done, there has been very little action and there is a real concern that both orcas will pass away in the abandoned park unless they can find a new home.
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Unfortunately, that has been a sticking point for a while now, with the other option of releasing them into the wild also raising some serious red flags, since they have spent the entirety of their lives inside an enclosure.
However, there has finally been a positive update after Tenerife zoo Loro Parque confirmed that they would be willing to rescue Wilkie and Keijo, which means that the we now only need approval from the Spanish government to potentially save their lives.
Wolfgang Kiessling, president of the Loro Parque Group, said the park is willing to 'rescue Wikie and Keijo and offer all available resources to ensure they do not die and can be permanently housed under conditions that guarantee their protection and welfare'.
However, he made it clear that the Spain’s central government must formally recognise Loro Parque’s suitability and provide the necessary legal certainty before any move can be organised and take place.
“This cannot be treated as a simple administrative procedure,” they said in an official statement. “It concerns the lives of two animals who require an immediate and permanent solution, technically viable and endorsed by the competent authorities of the countries involved.”
Kiessling also stressed the importance of saving the animals and suggested that it was not driven by economic or commercial interests.
He added: “We do not earn a single euro more by having six orcas instead of four. We are doing this out of moral, technical, and professional responsibility. We do it because we know how to care for these animals and because we want to prevent Wikie and Keijo from dying in France without a real alternative."
France’s Minister Delegate for Ecological Transition, Mathieu Lefévre has already reportedly approved a potential move to Tenerife, which means that the ball is now in the Spanish government's court when it comes to hopefully preventing a tragedy regarding these abandoned animals.
Loro Parque has already invested over $30 million in conservation projects, helping to save 18 different species, and the zoo stressed that getting Wilkie and Keijo to safety is now its 'top priority'.
James Moorhouse