Keiko (c. 1976 – 12 December 2003) was a male orca captured in the Atlantic Ocean near Iceland in 1979, and widely known for his portrayal of Willy in the 1993 film Free Willy. In 1996, Warner Bros. and the International Marine Mammal Project collaborated to return Keiko to the wild.

1993 - Keiko, still in Mexico, listens to calls made by Southern Resident orcas with great interest. Photo by Ken Balcomb, Center for Whale Research. Anthropologists tell us that the stories we tell shape our perceptions of the world.

2023年7月19日 · Based on documented diving behavior and his healthy and robust condition on his arrival in Norway, Keiko’s veterinarian and leading orca scientists concluded that he successfully fed himself over that distance, a major milestone on his journey back to the wild.

Watch how Keiko, the orca star of the hit film Free Willy, became the first captive orca to be successfully returned to his ocean. From capture to stardom to rehabilitation, from seapen to daily outings with caretakers, experience how Keiko gained over 3000 lbs, mixed it up with wild orcas, and even exhibited physical signs of attempts to mate ...

2019年3月11日 · After scouring the country's coast in search of winter digs for Keiko the killer whale, his caretakers said Tuesday that next week they will move the "Free Willy" star to the scenic bay, about six miles from where he now swims.

It's an orca, a killer whale that we humans captured from the wild, took from his mother and trained to be completely tame and live alongside us. This killer whale was so tamed that at night, when his trainers went home, and he was all alone, he would watch TV from inside his tank. He liked old Andy Griffith reruns and action movies.

It tells the story of a boy who befriends a killer whale named Willy and helps him return to the ocean after living an inhumane life in captivity. The movie was widely successful, bringing in $154 million dollars at the box office and inspiring a generation of young animal rights activists.

Keiko (pronounced KAY-ko) was an approximately 26-year-old male Icelandic killer whale who was captured near Ingólfshöfði (EENG-ohls-hovu-thi), south-east Iceland, on November 5th, 1979, alongside another male killer whale later named King. He is famous for his starring role as “Willy“ in the movie Free Willy. He was also one of the only ...

2024年11月12日 · It is unclear if Keiko ever found the pod from which he was stolen in Iceland in 1979. However, data shows he eventually swam for almost 1,000 miles on his own across the Atlantic Ocean in 2002 for nearly 60 days without human support, per the International Marine Mammal Project.

Keiko, a male orca (orcinus orca) originally captured in 1979 from a pod in Iceland, lived in Oregon for less than three years. During that time he became one of Oregon’s best-known celebrities and a major attraction at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport.