Ten Years Later, Orca Springer is Thriving After Successful Rehabilitation and Release Back into the Wild

In 2002, a young female Northern resident orca named Springer was released back into the wild after a few months of rehabilitation in captivity. A fit and healthy Springer has been resighted regularly with her family since her release, having successfully reintegrated back into her pod. 

"She's 12 now, she's a little bit young but it's not that unusual for a female orca. We're sitting around and year by year waiting for it to happen" says OrcaLab's Paul Spong.

About Springer: The calf was found orphaned in Seattle Harbour (USA), wasting away without her mother's milk, and hundreds of kilometres from home off northern Vancouver Island in Canada. Over the next few months, Springer was nursed back to health in Washington State. By the time she was released back home, people from two countries had come together to stand-in for her family, all the time working toward her release back into the wild. 

You can watch 2012 news footage about Springer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIu7XCB2Kxw&feature=youtu.be