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Wikie, 23, and her 11-year-old son Keijo are still being kept at Marineland Antibes, located in southern France, after it closed in January due to a forthcoming law banning the use of orcas in shows.

Most designs involve cordoning off a bay and employing staff to ensure Wikie and Keijo - who were born in captivity and cannot be released into the wild - were properly fed and looked after.

She added: "Morgan's pregnancy underlines the fact that Loro Parque could never be a suitable option for Wikie and Keijo and should be removed as an option."

They were told the site they had selected in Nova Scotia was too far away and that the water there was too cold for Wikie and Keijo, who have spent their whole lives in southern France.

They wrote a letter to her in which they cited Dr David Perpiñán, a diplomate at the European College of Zoological Medicine, who said: "Wikie and Keijo's origin is Iceland. These two orcas do not belong to the ecotypes seen in the Mediterranean."