Scientists working with dolphins at a marine park near Paris have attempted to measure how the animals feel about aspects of their lives in captivity.
In what researchers say is the first project to examine captivity “from the animals’ perspective”, the team assessed what activities dolphins looked forward to the most.
They found that the marine mammals most keenly anticipated interacting with a familiar human. The results, they say, show that “better human-animal bonds equals better welfare”.
The study, published in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science, was part of a three-year project to measure dolphin welfare in a captive setting.
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Lead researcher Dr Isabella Clegg worked at Parc Astérix, a theme park with one of France’s largest dolphinariums.
With colleagues at the University of Paris animal behaviour lab, she designed experiments to decode dolphin behaviour – essentially looking for physical postures that indicate how the animals were feeling.
“We wanted to find out what activities in captivity they like most,” Dr Clegg told the BBC.
To work this out, she tested three activities: a trainer coming and playing with dolphins; adding toys to the pool; and a control, which meant leaving the dolphins to their own devices.
“We found a really interesting result – all dolphins look forward most to interacting with a familiar human,” Dr Clegg said.
The animals showed this anticipation by “spy hopping”, the action of peering above the surface and looking in the direction that trainers usually approached from.
The dolphins would also increase their level of activity in the pool and spend more time at the edge. “We’ve seen this same thing in other zoo animals and in farm animals,” said Dr Clegg, adding: “Better human-animal bonds equals better welfare.”
According to the UK charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation, there are at least 3,000 cetaceans – the group of “toothed whales” that dolphins belong to – in captivity in 50 countries around the world.
Dr Clegg estimates that there could be as many as 5,000, as some animals are not officially registered.
In addition, in the more than 150 years since the first whales and dolphins were brought from the wild and into aquariums, scientists have learned a huge amount about their intelligence and complex social lives.