Why Did Killer Whale Snap? Five Leading Theories

(Feb. 25) -- Tragedy struck SeaWorld Orlando on Wednesday afternoon when a 40-year-old trainer named Dawn Brancheau was killed by an orca whale during the opening of a packed performance. Brancheau was recognized as one of the park's most seasoned trainers, and relatives have testified to her lifelong love for marine life, making the incident all the more heartbreaking.

Now, Shamu Stadium has been closed indefinitely and an investigation begun into the possible causes of the fatality, leaving various media outlets and commentators asking, Why would a 12,000-pound, 30-year-old male whale named Tilikum suddenly snap, attack and kill his trainer?

1. The Trainer's Ponytail Distracted Him

Julie Fletcher, Orlando Sentinel / MCT

Dawn Brancheau, shown here performing in December 2005, was one of the most experienced trainers at SeaWorld Orlando. She was killed by an orca whale in front of spectators at the park on Wednesday.

"Good Morning America" interviewed SeaWorld's curator of zoological operations, who said he thought the trainer's long hair was the catalyst for a tragically rough outburst of affection from the whale:

"What we have found out is that Dawn [Brancheau] had just finished up a very good session with this animal. ... She was interacting with him, petting him on the nose," Chuck Tompkins told "Good Morning America." "Dawn had very long hair in a ponytail. That ponytail had swung in front of him. He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her underwater and held her underwater."

2. He Was Bored and Lonely

LiveScience talked to a marine biologist from the Monterey Bay Whale Watch company, which hosts whale-sighting boat tours off the coast of California. Nancy Black said that orcas have "never killed a human in the wild," but captive animals are a whole different story. The blog summarized Black's theory as follows:

"Possibly the killer whale just got bored, she said, since their lives in captivity are more confined than at sea, where they spend time swimming hundreds of miles while hunting or playing."

And in Black's own words:

"I just think the killer whale may have wanted a social companion and just held her under too long. I would think the killer whale didn't do it intentionally but more as a play thing. They're so powerful."

3. He Was Feeling Randy...

But speaking to Discovery News, the same marine biologist revealed another potential explanation for the attack: It might have been a hormonal outburst related to the fact that Tilikum was frequently isolated and encouraged to breed.

"He was used a lot [by SeaWorld] for mating and could have even been enacting a mating behavior during the incident," explained Black.

She's not the only one with such a hypothesis. The Miami Herald quotes a trainer turned activist named Russ Rector, who has long protested the public showing of Tilikum:

"You know why they keep him around? His penis. He's a breeder.''

4. He Was Overworked

The Miami Herald also noted that Rector wrote a cautionary letter to SeaWorld three years ago warning the marine park that it was pushing its star performers too hard:

"Too much pressure and stress is being created by the attempt to achieve perfection. The animals are paying the price and displaying the consequences," he said in the letter.

Today he maintains:

"Happy animals don't kill their trainers."

Another person who agrees with the assessment is Paul Watson, president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a Canadian animal rights and marine conservation group. On the organization's Web site, he described a meeting with Tilikum back in the 1980s, when he was housed at Canada's Sealand of the Pacific park, which has since closed.

"I sat by the pool and patted the big orca on the head. I also put my hand in his mouth and put my palm on his tongue so he could taste that I was not afraid of him. I remember looking into the left eye of that magnificent predator, and what I saw there was resignation and sadness. He was not a happy whale.

I knew then as I know now that Tilikum should not be, and does not belong, in a swimming pool."

5. He Was Naturally Aggressive

Echoing the arguments of other animal rights activists, various nonexperts have weighed in with the assessment that an animal species named and famed for its lethality should not be interacting with human trainers in the first place. As columnist Mansfield Frazier said on The Daily Beast:

"They are supposed to be swimming free in their natural environment, not imprisoned in a tank and reduced to mere things that folks pay to gawk at. And no matter how much 'training' they receive, their nature can never be changed; they can always, like lions and tigers and bears, revert back to their instinctive behaviors, where anything that is not of their species is either a threat ... or lunch.

Other reports have emphasized the fact that Tilikum was an especially ornery orca with a fairly extensive history of violence (he was implicated in two other human fatalities, in 1991 and 1999). The Sydney Morning Herald observed that the SeaWorld staff's treatment of the whale reflected its apprehension of his temper and acknowledgment of the risk he posed.

"Because of his size and the previous deaths, trainers were not supposed to get into the water with Tilikum, and only about a dozen of the park's 29 trainers worked with him.

Ms. Brancheau [the victim] had more experience with the 30-year-old whale than most, and was one of the park's most experienced trainers.

''We recognized he was different,' said Chuck Tompkins, head of training at all SeaWorld parks."

In any case, the Times of London reports that the whale's life will be spared, at least for the time being.