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Obituaries: Celebrity deaths in 2017

Updated: Mar 12, 2018


Picture credit: CC0 Public Domain

In memory of some influential animals that passed away in 2017.


Tilikum, December 1981 - January 6, 2017 (35 years old)

Last January, the decade’s most influential animal passed away. His tragic story of mental illness and captivity was watched by millions in 2013’s Blackfish: the documentary proving, amongst other things, that encapsulating 5,700 kg orcas in tiny, pitch-black tanks - to make them perform circus tricks in front of a popcorn-guzzling rabble of Americans - isn’t the best of ideas.



Jeremy, Died 11 October 2017 (“at least two” years old)


Jeremy ‘the lefty snail’, named after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, became a ‘shellebrity’ because of his one-in-a-million genetic mutation of a left-coiling shell. His inability to mate with snails whose shells coiled clockwise called for a public campaign - initiated by Dr Angus Davison, Jeremy’s scientist - to find him a left-coiled partner. They eventually did, and Jeremy and fellow lefty Tomeu had 56 baby snails together. “I miss Jeremy, but I’m delighted we got some offspring from him,” says Dr Davison.  “Now I can get on with finding out why left-coiled snails are so rare.”


Grape Kun, April 16, 1996 – October 12, 2017 (21 years old)


The romantic Humboldt penguin, which engaged people in the love story of the year, died in October. After being dumped by his girlfriend for a younger male, Grape lived a rather lonely life in Tobu Zoo in Japan. But after a cutout of anime character Hululu from Kemono Friends was placed on a rock where he resided, Grape was enraptured. He often forgot to eat and sleep, spending long hours staring at his love.


Jonas Henmo

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