Formal Presentations - Monday
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CASE STUDY:
PERSISTENT HUMAN INTERACTION HINDERS A WILD DOLPHIN’S ABILITY
TO SURVIVE IN ITS NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

Brooke N. Bowersox,
​Heidi R. Whitehead
Nicole M. Willis

Clearwater Marine Aquarium
Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network
SeaWorld San Antonio
Full Abstract
Bottlenose dolphins reside close to shore in the wild, increasing their risk to human-related injuries and death. Although marine mammals have been federally protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act since 1972, they continue to face serious challenges in the wild. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program (MMHSRP) provides emergency response to sick, injured, distressed, or dead cetaceans and pinnipeds (excluding walrus) across the United States. NOAA Fisheries implements this program through authorized local, state, federal,and nongovernmental organizations trained to conduct response – the marine mammal stranding network (MMSN), rescue, and rehabilitation. A unique case of a bottlenose dolphin given the name “Izzy” required many organizations within the MMSN to work together for her health and safety. Izzy was first observed in December 2019, isolated in a series of remote canals off North Padre Island, Texas. Over the next two years, the public became increasingly interested in seeking Izzyout to both interact with and feed her. During that time, the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network (TMMSN), SeaWorld, and NOAA spent time monitoring Izzy. There was also great effort spent educating, enforcing laws, and pleading with the public to stop interacting with her in the wild. Despite these efforts, there remained a lack of compliance that placed the public and Izzy in dangerous situations. She became highly habituated to tactile interaction with people and showed a lack of wariness to vessels and other watercraft causing repeated injury. Izzy’s medical condition declined, so in June of 2022, NOAA deemed a rescue and medical intervention was necessary. Upon rescue, she was initially stabilized at Texas State Aquarium, underwent further care at TMMSN, and, as her activity increased, she was moved to SeaWorld San Antonio for continued rehabilitation in a larger, deeper pool. NOAA ultimately determined that Izzy would be unlikely to survive if released back to the wild given her habituation to people, an eye injury resulting in a lack of vision in one eye, naiveté regarding larger, deeper draft vessels, lack of socialization with anyconspecifics, and a demonstrated lack of foraging success. NOAA deemed her non-releasable on August 2, 2022 and Izzy was placed in permanent care at Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Members of the MMSN are dedicated to telling Izzy’s story to raise awareness about the importance of viewing wild marine mammals responsibly.
CHANGES IN ATTITUDES:
CORRECTING PUBLIC MISCONCEPTIONS ON WILD DOLPHIN BEHAVIOR

Abigail P. Haddock

Dolphin Research Center
Full Abstract
Dolphin behavior is interesting to the public, however especially with social media,misinformation is everywhere. The image of ‘the friendly wild dolphin’ is extremely pervasiveand has led to dolphin harassment, injuries, and even fatalities. Wild dolphin tour operators, evenones following laws, don’t always have staff who know how to read behavior to the level that trainers do every day. Facilities have a unique ability and ethical responsibility to teach about the spectrum of natural behavior.Dolphin Research Center’s field team has studied the wild dolphin population in the middle Florida Keys since 2013 (Permitted by NMFS LOC# 22587) . Recently, the field team witnessed our first begging dolphin in our study area approaching the research vessel. While dolphin viewing guidelines request that viewers not change natural behavior, if the public does not know natural behavior, this guideline quickly becomes meaningless. On social media, accounts of marine mammal harassment are often defended by misinterpreting behaviors like tail slapping and breaching as play, or ‘showing off’, versus communicating an adverse response. Even in
abnormal events like stranding, a romanticized concept of rescue and a lack of knowledge about disease and behavior can hinder rescue teams ability to provide actual assistance to distressed animals when the public is involved.
Educating about natural behavior can give people the information needed to keep wild dolphins safe. It is our job as marine mammal behaviorists to educate about the wide repertoire of complex behaviors we know, like pec slaps, raking, jaw popping, mating, resting, and more, to overcome the ever present myths that: wild dolphins are friendly, wild dolphins want to socialize
with people, and socializing with wild dolphins is safe and even morally good to do
LONG TERM SURVIVAL OF A RESCUED, REHABILITATED AND RELEASED
ATLANTIC SPOTTED DOLPHIN (STENEELA FRONTALIS)

John Madigan

Dolphin Cay, Atlantis, The Bahamas
Full Abstract
No abstract
TRAINER-DOLPHIN RELATIONSHIPS:
EFFECTS ON COGNITIVE TASK PERFORMANCE

Emma C. Miller

University of California: San Diego
Full Abstract
Fish is not the only reinforcer in a trainers’ toolkit. Some suggest that tactile reinforcement, social interaction, play, and even a bridge can serve as potent secondary reinforcers (Kuczaj & Xitco, 2002). Thus, in this study, we compared trainers’ utilization of 8 different reinforcement types to predict bottlenose dolphins’ (Tursiops truncatus) performance on a match-to-sample (MTS) task. While some research suggests that more reinforcement overall leads to better performance on behavioral tasks (MacKellar et al., 2023), we sought to expand on this by looking at how reinforcement was provided. First, we surveyed trainers on their beliefs regarding the dolphins’ reinforcement preferences by asking them to rank common reinforcers for each dolphin. We then compared these to videos of the trainers’ actual reinforcement behavior during MTS trials. Using trainers’ actual behavior in a regression analysis, we found that the magnitude of fish alone and the magnitude of all types of reinforcement combined did not predict MTS performance. Instead, we found that there was a significant effect of the trainer-dolphin dyad. This effect remained even when controlling for the amount of reinforcement delivered and the difficulty of the trials. We found that this effect might be explained by the distribution of the particular types of reinforcers provided rather than the magnitude alone. Using the rankings of reinforcement preferences, we found that many trainers modified their reinforcement usage based on what they believed the animals preferred. And, we found that among dyads where trainers were more attuned to the dolphins’ reinforcement preferences, the dolphins tended to perform better in MTS trials. These results suggest that it is important for trainers to get to know the animals that they work with in order to improve the efficacy of the reinforcement they provide for all types of behaviors, from husbandry to enrichment activities. This work complements our current work on the effects of trainer-dolphin interaction on dolphins’ affective states and comes with a request for IMATA trainers to opine on their experiences.

TRAINING TWO COGNITIVE TASKS TO TEST THE EFFECTS OF
ANTHROPOGENIC NOISE ON BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN COGNITION

Paige E Stevens

Oklahoma State University
Full Abstract
Marine mammals across the globe continue to be exposed to rising levels of human-made, anthropogenic, noise in their environment despite numerous empirical evidence of adverse effects on communication and physiology. Determining the impacts of anthropogenic noise has become an essential aspect of conservation and regulative focus. However, more recently, conversations have called for increased focus on the effects of anthropogenic noise on acoustic welfare including cognitive impacts (Stevens, Hill, & Bruck, 2021; Winship & Jones, 2023). Research completed during the COVID-19 related anthropause has highlighted that dolphins pay attention to anthropogenic noise types unequally and changes regarding consistency of anthropogenic noise cause dishabituation to previously acclimated noise stimuli (Stevens, Allen, & Bruck, 2023). These pervasive attentive distractors may have effects on learning including important survival critical tasks. To test the effects of acoustic disruption by anthropogenic noise on learning, animals housed in professional care environments provide an opportunity to look at learning under the best-case scenario circumstances. Bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, housed at Dolphin Quest Bermuda and Mississippi Aquarium were trained in dyads to complete two different behaviors: match-to-sample and object-as-signal. Each dolphin learned one behavior under a daily rotation of four anthropogenic noise playback types: cruise ship, idling jet-propelled personal watercraft, full throttle jet-propelled personal watercraft, and Navy low frequency active sonar. A separate different behavior was learned without the addition of anthropogenic noise. We measured the number of asks, assistances from trainer as approximate signals, and failures until the dolphin was considered learned in each behavior. Once learned, the data were analyzed to assess the effects of anthropogenic noise type, facility type, and individual effect on dolphin learning. Results of this study will provide granular insight into dolphin learning of two different tasks and the effect of anthropogenic noise on learning efficacy in cetaceans.
THE USE OF CHOICE AND CONTROL
TO INFER INDIVIDUAL OBJECT PREFERENCES IN BOTTLENOSE DOLPHINS

Melissa Voisinet

The Graduate Center, CUNY
Full Abstract
In preparation for a dolphin vocal learning study, we aimed to increase individual interactions with artificial objects that would eventually be paired with acoustic signals. Participants were housed in sea pens and had previously interacted with natural objects more than artificial objects. Previous dolphin vocal learning studies have highlighted the importance of choice and control in research and welfare. Therefore, we used a choice and control paradigm that allowed dolphins to choose between one of two objects; touching an object resulted in the dolphin being given that object. Results suggest that our choice and control paradigm successfully establishes individual object preferences. Anticipatory behavior throughout our sessions suggests a positive affective state for our participants.