Suppose you are in a coma in a hospital after an accident. You can no longer speak for yourself. Doctors, people trained to do so, inspect your body and conclude the worst. Keeping that body alive is just a delay, they say. Letting yourself die is the most humane choice. But then a number of laymen appear at your bedside. They believe that you are a unique being and should not die. So they start a rescue operation.
“That is actually what is happening now with humpback whale Timmy,” says human-animal scientist Maarten Reesink, who suggests the thinking exercise on a terrace in Artis zoo.
Timmy, a male humpback whale measuring twelve meters long and weighing 12,000 kilos, became stranded (for the first time) on March 23 on a sandbank in Germany. On April 1, German authorities decided to abandon rescue efforts based on advice from experts who believe they cannot remove the rope in the animal’s digestive tract. The best thing they could do for Timmy is let him die. But then, under the leadership of multi-millionaire and MediaMarkt founder Walter Gunz (79), emotionally involved private individuals stood up. They refused to give up the humpback whale.
German Environment Minister Till Backhaus succumbed to the pressure and authorized new rescue operations. “Of course he does not want to be known as the man responsible for Timmy’s death,” says Reesink. It’s one thing to be responsible for the death of a whale. Before the death of whale Timmythe unique individual who has become world famous through livestreams and live blogs, that is something different.
And so the animal, which underwent zinc ointment treatment because its skin could not tolerate the fresh water of the Baltic Sea, was transported in a floating aquarium from Germany via Denmark to the North Sea. From there he can find his own way to the Atlantic Ocean. Or at least: that’s what the people who want to save Timmy hope.
Experts watch with dismay. For example, German biologist Fabian Ritter stated at VTM News that the whale is “weakened and traumatized” and “clearly in poor physical condition.” His muscles can no longer support him after lying still for a long time, he thinks.
The media animal
“Fifty years ago it was unthinkable that we would be so concerned about the death of a whale,” says human-animal scientist Reesink. Not only because whales strand and die more often, but because animals have acquired a different position in the human world.
“Humans have a natural tendency towards empathy towards living beings, but this has shifted significantly in recent decades.” Take dogs: not so long ago they simply had a function, they had to guard, period. “Now the dog is a family member, sometimes even a child.” These are animals in close proximity, whose owners know that they have a unique character that requires care and attention.
At the same time, in a world where natural habitats are under pressure, millions of animals are slaughtered in factory farms and consumer behavior has a negative impact on the climate, many animals are victims of humans. Many of them, the anonymous animals in the crowd, receive no attention. But every once in a while there is one that stands out: the media animal.
It comes into the spotlight and then it turns out that just like a dog, a whale is also a unique creature, in whose death struggle we recognize something human. “You could see that the whale was fighting and wanted to live,” German entrepreneur Karin Walter-Mommert, who paid for the rescue along with Gunz, told reporters. Image. People who drew inspiration from Timmy had an image of the animal tattooed.
There are experts who have difficulty with the sharp distinction between anonymous animals and a media animal like Timmy, says Reesink. “They think it’s hypocritical.” According to Reesink, attention for Timmy can actually ensure that people see the broader picture. Media animals can ensure that the circle of empathy widens. From the individual Timmy to the humpback whale, to cetaceans in general and ultimately to all marine mammals and their habitat.
But it is not without danger. What if humanization takes hold? “It is a search for the balance: when does ‘humanizing’ animals help to be involved and when does it no longer help? When do we no longer see the animal as an animal?”
‘Hello dear Tanja, I will miss you’
The Groote Museum in Artis has an exhibition about the stuffed Tanja, the hippopotamus that lived in the Amsterdam zoo for almost fifty years. The zoo has struggled with exactly this balance. In 2015, she therefore stopped communicating the names of animals to visitors, partly because of Tanja. “She was a celebrity, a famous hippopotamus,” says Artis historian Wessel Broekhuis.
He points to the display case, where there are drawings and letters that they received after Tanja’s death in 2009. “Hello dear Tanja, I will miss you,” reads a note. „Everybody loves Tanjarest in peace,” next to a drawing of a hippopotamus.
At Artis they want to improve the relationship between people and nature, not between people and individual animals
Her birthday was celebrated every year, including vegetable cake, streamers and a visit from the NOS. “Many people felt connected to Tanja, but you may wonder whether this is the connection you want to create. People looked at her and saw Tanja the hippo, instead of Tanja the hippo.” Thanks to Tanja, did they care about all the hippos, or just about Tanja?
Maarten Reesink with the stuffed hippo Tanja in Artis.
Photo Merlijn Doomernik
“She was no longer a wild animal, almost a refined pet,” says Broekhuis. While in Artis they want to improve the relationship between people and nature, not between people and individual animals.
However, Artis returned to that policy in December. “Research shows that visitors remember information about an animal with a name more easily and for longer. It certainly has a function for the species to name the individual.” That is why they are now naming some animals, such as the two newborn elephant calves.
Remember it’s a whale
Timmy, who got his name because he was stranded on the Timmendorfer Strand, is a victim of his own fame, according to both men. Broekhuis: “I think that the emotions that are currently playing are getting in the way of the importance of the animal.” Reesink: “It is good that we sympathize with a whale, but we must continue to see that it is a whale.” And whales can strand and die.
What happens next for Timmy remains to be seen. The initiators of the rescue operation hope to release him during the weekend, depending on his health status and weather conditions. Experts fear the weakened animal will drown in the deeper waters.
It does not seem that the Danes will assist him if he gets into trouble there again. Whale strandings are a natural phenomenon, says the Danish Ministry of the Environment, and that is allowed to take its course. Even if that whale’s name is Timmy.
Addition (May 2, 2025): It was announced on Saturday that Timmy had been released into the North Sea. German authorities will continue to track him via GPS for the time being.
