Formal Presentations - Wednesday
Abstracts
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THE LONG AND SHORT OF BELUGA (DELPHINAPTERUS LEUCAS) BEHAVIOR -
CONTRIBUTING TO WELFARE AND CONSERVATION Heather Hill St. Mary’s University Full Abstract
Managed care populations provide many opportunities to contribute to the welfare and conservation of a given species. The objective of this talk is to highlight several key findings and subsequent welfare and conservation contributions from a 15+ year long-term study on the SeaWorld Texas beluga (white whale, Delphinapterus leucas) population. Method: Since 2007, my research team of undergraduate and graduate students, high school interns, adult volunteers, and training staff, have observed mothers and their calves from birth until their departure two to five times a week using a focal follow approach. In 2013, we expanded the project to the entire beluga population officially using both focal follow and scan sample procedures. This long-term observational study has been supplemented with several experimental studies, which investigated responses of belugas to familiar and unfamiliar stimuli (objects or humans) or complex enrichment problems. Findings: 1. Data collected across multiple facilities corroborates the same-sex affiliations, as seen in wild group compositions, with male-male social interactions most frequently observed. 2. Seasonal breeding patterns occur in managed care populations within the same time frame as wild populations. 3. Socio-sexual behaviors are critical aspects of the behavioral repertoire that emerges innately but requires practice. Many elements of socio-sexual behavior are learned piece-meal and cross several behavioral systems. 4. Mixed sex and age social compositions diversifies the exhibited behaviors of all belugas, and is especially important for adult belugas and their welfare. 5. Calf behavioral milestones, such as swim positions with mother, separations/reunions with mother, general social interactions, and play are critical for evaluating welfare. 6. Presence of same or similar aged conspecifics facilitates these milestones. 7. Presence of mature males and mature females may also facilitate critical reproduction behaviors in juveniles and sub-adults. 8. Belugas are curious (with individual differences) about unfamiliar stimuli and can be desensitized to unexpected outcomes. Conclusions: Belugas can live long and enriched lives in managed care. The findings from this long-term study are corroborated by research conducted at other facilities independent of SWT as well as by multiple wild populations. Research from this study informs conservation efforts with belugas while also demonstrating positive welfare of the animals in managed care. |
BELUGA SEXUAL BEHAVIOR DURING A LONGITUDINAL STUDY:
IMPLICATIONS FOR WELFARE AND CONSERVATION Malin K. Lilley Texas A&M University Full Abstract
Belugas are socially gregarious, spending summer months in large congregations in shallow waters and the remainder of the year in smaller groups throughout Arctic and sub-Arctic waters. This habitat and large home range make it difficult to learn about beluga behavior, especially social behavior and developmental milestones; however, research with belugas in managed care provides an opportunity to learn more about beluga reproductive behavior and the developmental learning process leading to successful reproduction. A long-term behavioral study of belugas housed at SeaWorld of Texas has documented the behavior of over 20 belugas since 2007. This dataset has followed the birth and subsequent development of several calves along with the juveniles and adults in the population. Based on this dataset, we have been able to explore many aspects of sexual behavior. Like many other mammals, belugas engage in socio-sexual behavior, which is sexual behavior that does not result in reproduction. Male belugas typically engage in sexual behavior with each other year-round but turn their attention to receptive females during the annual spring breeding season. Both male and female belugas begin engaging in socio-sexual behavior at a young age, but unlike other play behaviors, are most frequently with a male conspecific who is older instead of a conspecific of a similar age. Young belugas develop the behaviors of the socio-sexual repertoire in a piece-meal fashion over time; however, beluga calves who are housed with more male conspecifics of an older age develop their socio-sexual repertoire earlier in life. Although belugas do show patterns in their choice of social partner, sociosexual interactions occur between many different pairings, including many group interactions of three or more belugas in a single interaction. Socio-sexual behavior is reciprocal in nature and involves a lot of turn-taking. Occasionally, adult females will engage in sexual behavior with juvenile male belugas, which provides the males with practice opportunities. Socio-sexual behavior may involve many processes of social learning (e.g., imitation, emulation, shaping by conspecifics), which indicates that opportunities to engage in this behavior with a variety of conspecifics throughout the lifespan are important for social welfare and may improve future reproductive behavior. Finally, adult female belugas have been observed as active participants in reproductive copulation interactions, which suggests that female choice may be involved in the beluga mating system and that males may need to demonstrate their mate value through behavioral displays in addition to physical attributes. With some beluga populations being endangered (e.g., Cook Inlet, Alaska), it is important to learn more about beluga social learning and behaviors related to reproduction as this knowledge can help improve the management of wild beluga populations. In addition to the conservation applications of this knowledge, understanding more about social learning, patterns of socialization, and reproductive behaviors can contribute to high levels of welfare for belugas in managed care. For example, mixed age and sex social groups offer a variety of learning opportunities for young belugas and also socially engage older belugas within the population. |
TRAINING IMITATION OF NOVEL SOUNDS IN A BELUGA (DELPHINAPTERUS LEUCAS)
Mairim Martinez University of Connecticut Full Abstract
The ability of bottlenose dolphins to mimic novel whistle sounds has been known for quite some time (Caldwell & Caldwell, 1965; Richards et al., 1984), and more recent work has shown the potential for similar abilities in other toothed whales (Abramson et al., 2018; Murayama et al., 2014). We worked with a male beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) under professional care to teach him to imitate novel sounds. This whale has a history of spontaneous vocal imitation of noises in his environment, and trainers noted him mimicking sounds such as sirens, squeaky gates, and ducks. The behavior was initially conditioned by recording audio of the vocalizations already within the whale’s behavioral repertoire. A recorded vocalization was played for the whale and immediately followed by the sD (discriminative stimulus) for that vocalization. Over time, the playback of the recorded vocalization also became an sD for the mimic vocalization. Once this behavior was established, novel vocalizations were introduced. Initially these novel vocalizations were animal sounds chosen for their distinctiveness, for example, frog, dolphin, and rattlesnake. The whale was able to imitate natural sounds accurately enough to be identifiable on the first attempt and by a blind listener. In this paper, we detail the training process, including the obstacles we encountered, how the whale’s ability to imitate sounds changed with practice or the type of sound, some thoughts on this ability relative to the natural history of beluga whales, and the potential practical applications. |
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INTRODUCING LOW AND HIGH INTENSITY CRITERIA
TO BOTTLENOSE DOLPHINS (Tursiops truncatus) Juan Carlos Martínez Jonathan Bishop Dolphin Adventure Full Abstract
Building upon a foundation of innovative concepts developed at Dolphin Adventure, such as "Wait and Go," "Sequence," "Reverse," "Combine," "Mark," "Repeat," and "Who am I," our research aims to expand the cognitive behavior repertoire of our collection of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) by introducing the "Low and High" intensity criteria. This initiative is a part of our broader commitment to enriching our animal welfare program. Our primary objective is to train our dolphins to exhibit behaviors at intensities lower or higher than the established criteria, all while maintaining precise stimulus control (Sd). In order to implement the "Low" and "High" intensity Sd's, we employed selective reinforcement, encouraging calmer responses for the former and more exuberant responses for the latter. As a result, we have successfully integrated the ability to adjust the intensity criteria of any behavior within the dolphins' repertoire. This not only provides the animals with mental challenges to enhance their welfare but also equips us with a novel tool for our interactive programs, adaptable to various scenarios and the specific needs of the dolphins. |
FAILURE IS AN OPTION!
PREVENTING FRUSTRATION IN RESEARCH TRAINING Sarah E. Brignac Dolphin Research Center Full Abstract
Dolphin Research Center (DRC), formerly the Institute of Delphinid Research, has been conducting cognitive research with our resident dolphins for the past 46 years. In this type of research, we train the dolphins a task or “thinking game” in order to test a specific cognitive ability. Unlike with physical behaviors, this means we don’t actually train the entire behavior to completion. While we can directly train the physical set-up and procedure (e.g., you start here, a stimulus appears, you make a choice by touching this or that), the dolphins have to figure out the cognitive rule by trial and error (albeit with hints). For positive reinforcement trainers this can be intimidating, since we are conditioned to set our animals up to win, and learning through trial and error means that they will inevitably sometimes fail. But failure is essential to their learning, because not getting a bridge gives them important information. Through relationship-based training we have found ways to keep our research projects fun and engaging for our dolphins, thus preventing frustration. In many forms of operant conditioning, variable schedules of reinforcement are recommended because they have been known to increase motivation. In cognitive research, however, we use a continuous reinforcement schedule, feeding the same amount and type of fish each trial, to avoid creating any behavioral or side biases. So instead, we intentionally insert variability wherever we can, such as interspersing non-research behaviors and varying the animal’s location, to provide an opportunity for variable reinforcement. We can also use error-less trials during training to build the dolphin’s confidence, and repeat those randomly during testing. Last year at the joint IMATA ABMA Conference DRC presented a cooperation study where an underwater tone was used to signal an incorrect response. Afterwards, we received an overwhelming number of questions about the use of a stimulus delta and why our dolphins did not seem frustrated by it. We believe this was because of the relationships we have formed and the reinforcing aspects we put into our training. We have effectively taught our dolphins that research training is interesting and enjoyable, and failure just means they’ll get another chance to figure it out. |
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"THE LITTLE DOLPHIN
THAT COULD" - INTEGRATING A HAND RAISED CALF FROM BIRTH INTO A SOCIAL METRNITY POD Erica Wisniewski Dolphin Research Center Full Abstract
On May 31st, 2022, Dolphin Research Center welcomed a beautiful female dolphin calf named Bowie into the world. It was soon discovered that Bowie's mom, Gypsi who was a first time mom at 15 years old, did not know what to do with the calf. In concerns for Bowie's health it wasdetermined by our animal care staff and veterinarian that Bowie needed to move to our medical pool. The next six months entailed the staff working around the clock to care for Bowie, which included tubing her not only her own mothers milk but other female dolphins' milk at DRC who were trained for the voluntary milk collection behavior(K.L. West et al., 2007).As Bowie developed we decided it was necessary to socially integrate her with other dolphins. We knew finding a “mother” figure for Bowie was step one. Aleta, an experienced mom of her own who has had two calves at DRC, stepped up to the plate. She took Bowie under her wing and successfully brought her into a maternity group. We had another female calf born in November of 2022, Morada; who was living in a social group made up of her mom and grandmother. As this group blossomed over the months and Bowie was continuing to thrive we were able to reintroduce Gypsi, Bowie's mom and her grandmother Tursi into the group. Gypsi has now gotten the opportunity to interact with Bowie and watch nursing with Cayo and Morada. We have observed successful “mother and calf” interactions with Gypsi and Bowie, such as echelon swimming, surfing, and even “latch ons” for nursing. Both females Aleta and Gypsi are respectful of one another when one of them has Bowie.This little girl has come a long way and is growing in leaps and bounds. Learning new behaviors, getting to experience the environmental enrichment from the natural lagoons, and thankfully continuing to excel health wise. Thanks to our great staff who put in the effort with her in those beginning days she is now a fan favorite out there! |
HAILEE'S COMET
Hailee E. Crockett Gulf World Marine Park Full Abstract
Comet, a rescued Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, now estimated to be 17-19 years of age, suffered a drastic behavioral breakdown in 2021. While it is speculated this decline was caused by an unknown medical issue; it seemed to affect his memory, body control, and behavior socially within our 7.5 Atlantic bottlenose dolphins and 0.3 rough toothed dolphins collection. The precise cause remains undetermined. Comet lost his entire behavioral repertoire, and regressed to being an animal that required reconditioning a bridge. Changing his social group, creating a specific team of trainers to work on him, and slow approximations allowed us to recover basic, husbandry, and water work behaviors. Although Comet is not the same as he once was, we have seen large behavioral and social improvements. |
REVAMPING MARINE MAMMAL INTERACTIVE PROGRAMS IN A NATURALISTIC WAY
Zari Scott Dolphin Bay, Atlantis Dubai, UAE Full Abstract
Modern zoos and aquariums have an undeniably important role in the conservation of countless endangered species and the education of the general public. At Atlantis Dubai, animal welfare, conservation and education are at the very core of our facility. With this in mind, we strongly believed it was time to revolutionize the marine mammal interactions we provide to our guests. This has brought on the biggest change our facility has undergone in the past 15 years. Dolphin Bay gives home to Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) and South African fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus) and offers different encounters with both species, from dry to deep water. In the past, though educational messaging has always been provided during these encounters, the way in which this was delivered was alongside different rides, kisses and hugs, therefore in the case of many guests, the main point of the program wasn’t to learn about these animals, the threats they face or how to conserve them, but to have their pictures taken. The main objective of this project was to change the way our guests perceive these animals and have them leave with newfound knowledge and a strong sense of responsibility towards better protecting our marine life. As we embarked on this new journey, our staff underwent some vigorous training, followed by our animals learning many new behaviors to further facilitate delivering our educational messaging in a more naturalistic and engaging way. The new setup of our programs includes educating our guests about the animals’ anatomy and physiology, training, enrichment and conservation. The animals only perform natural behaviors, with a messaging behind everything our guests witness and contact is limited only to occasions when it serves an educational purpose. We have also introduced no-contact experiences, such as kayaking and paddle boarding in our dolphin lagoons, as well as a morning sunrise program. Besides this, we offer a behind the scenes tour, in which we aim to give our guests a better understanding of what goes into looking after these animals. In order to measure the impact this project has had on our guests’ experiences, pre and post surveys are currently being conducted. Initial data suggests that 93% of our guests learned something new about marine life and 53% of them were able to name a specific action they can take towards helping the conservation of oceans. The results will be discussed during the presentation, alongside the challenges faced during the transition period. With daily data collection regarding our animals’ behavior and welfare, we will also assess any relevant changes in that area. |