The Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at The Mirage, Las Vegas is closing permanently.
The decision to shut down the attraction and move the captive dolphins was announced earlier this week in a joint memo from interim Mirage President Franz Kallao and Hard Rock Las Vegas President Joe Lupo. The tigers and lions held at the facility are also to be moved.
The dolphin exhibit has been closed since the death of the bottlenose dolphin K2 on 25 September, the third dolphin death at Mirage this year. Marine Connection has been corresponding with Hard Rock International since late 2021 when the company purchased the operations of The Mirage Hotel & Casino from MGM Resorts International – they are yet to confirm where the dolphins will be moved to but one thing is for sure, it won’t be the desert.
Marine Connection’s Margaux Dodds comments “We very much welcome this positive decision by the facility, which proves just how effective public pressure can be when influencing change. Most of the dolphins were captive born at SeaWorld or Mirage, however, one female, Duchess was wild caught from the Gulf of Mexico and has given birth to six calves, only one of which is alive today, it is beyond sad that so many lives have been lost needlessly at the facility in the name of entertainment.”
