Morgan, the only female orca at Loro Parque on the Spanish island of Tenerife, has given birth for the second time; this time, it’s a male. Morgan’s first calf, who was female and named Ula, was separated from Morgan shortly after birth and died at the facility before her third birthday. At Loro Parque, four orcas have now died since 2021. The latest calf is as yet unnamed, but this is an orca birth we are not celebrating. If this youngster survives, he will spend his life performing for the paying public that visits Loro Parque.

Marine Connection campaigns director Margaux Dodds comments, “Orcas don’t deserve to be born into a world that does not compare to the surroundings they would enjoy if they had been born in the wild.  They do not belong in concrete tanks, confined for profit simply for entertainment.  It is time to phase out breeding of all cetaceans in captivity, to ensure that this is the last generation of dolphins or whales that must be forced to endure confinement, and all the mental and physical suffering this can cause.”