Last night Loro Parque issued a formal statement informing of the death of one of their orcas, Ula, the daughter of the killer whale Morgan. “It is with immense pain and sadness that we write these words today. We are doing it to share with all our friends that we have lost our beloved Ula, Morgan's calf, who was born here, with us, at OrcaOcean.”
“A few months ago, we shared with you our concern for her health after she fell ill and was in a very critical situation, but, thanks to a great team of professionals and their tireless effort and dedication, we managed to stabilize her and move forward.”
“Nonetheless, a few days ago we noticed her mood being a bit off and her spirits down again. We responded immediately, starting all the medical procedures to analyze her health and carrying out tests to find out the reason for her low spirits. Unfortunately, a few hours ago, Ula left us.”
“Now we have arranged everything necessary to carry out a necropsy, counting on the best experts in cetacean pathology, which will allow us to know the causes of her death.”
“Beyond this, right now it is impossible for us to explain what the loss of little Ula means for the Loro Parque family, and especially for the OrcaOcean team, who went out of their way for her on a daily basis.”
Ula was born on September 22nd 2018 in Loro Parque, and was the first born of Morgan. Morgan’s journey has been well documented as she was rescued in 2010 on the Dutch coast of the Wadden Sea, where she was found with skin abrasions, inflammation and severe malnutrition.
After recovering at the Harderwijk Dolphinarium, a group of international scientists who are experts in killer whales, determined that returning her to the sea would almost certainly imply her sentence to a slow death, the Dutch authorities asked Loro Parque to take Morgan in so that she could join a social group of killer whales. She was transferred to the Park in 2011, and in March 2012 Morgan was considered to be fully integrated into the orca group of Loro Parque.
Since then, he has lived a healthy life in harmony with the rest of the group and with her trainers, and has been part of the research, education and conservation activities that are carried out on a regular basis with the killer whales. In 2018, she gave birth to her first calf.
