Research Overview:
Researchers at Dolphin Research Center (DRC) in Grassy Key, FL, conducted this study with a 2-year-old bottlenose dolphin named “Ranger”, who had been found and rescued the previous year, dehydrated and malnourished, swimming next to his deceased mother near Rockport, Texas. After being nursed back to health by Texas State Aquarium, National Marine Fisheries deemed him non-releasable due to his young age and lack of hunting abilities, and DRC was chosen to be his permanent home.
During the five-week quarantine period before he could be introduced to his new social group, we observed Ranger’s behavior after a training session, after a trainer toy play session, and between interactive sessions. We found that indicators of Ranger’s well-being – such as spending more time playing with toys and less time just floating in place – were significantly better after both training sessions and trainer play sessions.
Ideally, social animals should be housed socially, but in those rare cases where a social animal must be temporarily isolated, our study suggests that better welfare would come if caregivers would not only give them toys, but interact with the animal and those toys together.
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Trainer Interaction Can Improve Welfare Outcomes of Toy Enrichment for Isolated Animals: A Case Study
Ranger benefitted from trainer interaction with his toys
