What will happen to Wiki y Fairythe two orcas from ? The Antibes marine park, in the southeast of France, definitively closed at the beginning of January, after more than 50 years of existence. The management of the enclosure, which presents itself as the “largest marine zoo in Europe”, justified its closure due to legislation against animal abuse. The regulations, which will come into force next year, prohibit performing shows with cetaceans, such as whales or dolphins. The attraction, however, was the one that generated the most interest among the public. The last two orcas in captivity in the country now face an uncertain future.
The closure of Marineland, owned by the Spanish group Parques Reunidos, reflects society’s growing sensitivity towards animals living in captivity. But it also highlights the challenges these parks face in rehoming the cetaceans that generated most of their profits. In the case of , the management recalled that 90% of visitors came to the venue to attend the orca and dolphin shows. An exhibition that will be totally prohibited in France, where one expressly prevents holding this type of event.
The regulations, combined with the covid-19 crisis, “dealt a fatal blow” to the park, which has suffered a considerable loss of public attendance in the last decade. Ten years ago, about 1.2 million people visited the venue annually. Before its closure on January 5, there were just 425,000. The closure of the marine zoo sparked intense debates about the future of its more than 4,000 animals. But the fate of his two orcas born in captivity focused most of the discussions. At least four destinations have been proposed for cetaceans, including Tenerife’s Loro Parque, with no agreement yet on where they should go.
“The well-being of Wiki y Fairy “It is our priority,” assured the French Minister of Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, to the newspaper The Parisian. In mid-November, he announced that the government was rejecting the transfer of the two predators to Kobe, Japan. “Today, there are parks capable of housing orcas,” in reference to Spain. In the Asian country, on the other hand, “there is no such advanced regulation regarding animal welfare,” he said. He also cited the state of health of Wiki23 years old, and Fairyof 11, to move them to the Japanese island, located more than 13,000 km away.
NGOs like the French one celebrated the executive’s decision and asked that the option of sending them to a . “No sanctuary in the world today is capable of hosting orcas,” Pannier-Runacher stated, however. In June 2024, a person who gives recommendations to the Government published that he analyzed the different options for cetaceans. The Canadian sanctuary, promoted by the American organization, was among the possibilities, but the study highlighted that the project still presented “an experimental nature that contains an inherent part of risk.” The only acceptable alternative, he added, would be his transfer to
“Sending them back into captivity is sending them to certain death,” One Voice president Muriel Arnal reacted in . Both the report and the NGO cited the deaths of orcas in Loro Parque, which occurred in recent years. In November, the Tenerife zoo reported the death, at the age of 29, of Keto, who had shown “symptoms of discomfort.” on the premises between March 2021 and September 2022. Loro Parque then stated that scientific examinations carried out by the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria revealed that the deaths were inevitable.
For the case of Wiki y Fairyanother option would be to relocate them to a sanctuary in France, specifically off the coast of Brittany, in the west of the country. The project has been proposed by the NGO. France “cannot get rid of the problem by sending these orcas to a country that does not have equivalent laws,” the organization said in a statement. Off the coast of the city of Brest, the animals would also be “under the protection of French legislation on animal welfare,” he argued.
The average life expectancy of a male orca is about 30 years. Females, on the other hand, usually live about 50 years, indicates one from Spain. The fate of the two cetaceans, for now, remains uncertain. The only certainty is that, while their future is decided, they will remain in Marineland.
