>Even in the animal kingdom, it seems that some ladies can't get enough of a bad boy. Tilikum, the orca who killed a veteran trainer during a performance in March, has impregnated two females at SeaWorld Orlando. Apparently, he's quite the sperm whale.
Twenty-year-old whale, Taima will give birth to her fourth calf by early June, while a 32-year-old orca will pop out another Tilikum Jr. in October. Orcas' pregnancies last 17 months, so both calves were conceived well before the attack.
Tilikum is one of three breeding males in SeaWorld's parks, and the only one in Orlando. He is the father of every Orca recently born in captivity in the park. However, some activists fear he could be passing on his violent tendencies (he was also involved in two other deaths dating as far back as 1991) to a whole new generation.
In fact, one of Tilikum's offspring, Kasatka, was involved in a near fatal incident involving a trainer at SeaWorld's San Diego park in 2006.
"Tilikum and his offspring are loaded guns," said dolphin trainer turned activist Russ Rector to Riptide back in March. "SeaWorld played Russian roulette with Dawn's life and lost."
Rector explained that Tilikum was a transient killer whale, not a resident, in the wild. Resident whales tend to live in one specific area, while transients (which some believe could even be a separate species or sub-species) tend to live a life that requires them to be more aggressive as they move from place to place. Rector believes that Tilikum will pass some of his more dangerous traits on to his offspring.
