Daughter of famous ‘Blackfish’ killer whale Tilikum dies aged 17

The daughter of a famous killer whale which inspired a Netflix documentary has died after years in captivity.

Tilikum drowned a SeaWorld trainer in 2010 and was involved in the deaths of two others at the park in Florida, the US.

Daughter Skyla, 17, recently died at the Loro Parque marine park in Tenerife, Spain.

She was shipped from the US to the Canary Islands 15 years ago.

The cause of her death is currently unknown, with a post-mortem examination due to be carried out.

Officials said she was fine until March 11, when she started showing “signs of discomfort”, La Vanguardia reports.

Mum Kalina was the first orca to be born into captivity that made it to adulthood.

Part of Skyla’s biography from a fan website reads: “Skyla, in her first months of life, was a very independent child who was not afraid to move away from her mother’s side to play or explore the habitat in which she lived.

“In fact, Kalina let the trainers interact with her baby with total safety and comfort, allowing touches, caresses, kisses, etc, unlike other mothers.”

Tilikum passed away in 2017 aged 36, at which point SeaWorld had faced a raft of criticism after the airing of the documentary.

President and CEO Joel Manby said at the time: “Tilikum had, and will continue to have, a special place in the hearts of the SeaWorld family, as well as the millions of people all over the world that he inspired.

“My heart goes out to our team who cared for him like family.”