Personality of killer whales (Orcinus orca) is related to welfare and subjective well-being
Questionnaires are very useful tools when it comes to assessing zoo based animal measures and caretakers of these animals (such as keepers, trainers and veterinarians) are in the best position to provide accurate answers to these assessments. Our goal was (a) to empirically demonstrate the utility of a welfare questionnaire and (b) to examine the […]
Bottlenose dolphins’(Tursiops Truncatus) Visual and Motor Laterality Depending on Emotional Contexts
Hemispheric lateralization is a specialized neural and cognitive processing achieved preferentially by either the left or the right hemisphere of the brain. Among vertebrates, emotions processing seems to be lateralized, but the involvement of each hemisphere is still on debate. Our study investigated visual and motor laterality on five bottlenose dolphins’ (Tursiops truncatus) during spontaneous […]
Capture Myopathy and Stress Cardiomyopathy in a Live-Stranded Risso’s Dolphin (Grampus griseus) in Rehabilitation
Capture myopathy (CM) is described in wild animals as a metabolic syndrome resulting from the extreme stress suffered during and after capture, handling, restraint, and transport. Although CM has been characterized in many species of cetaceans, descriptions of cardiac injury—an important component of this syndrome, and, according to previous authors, comparable to the existing human […]
Lateralized behavior in two captive bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus)
Abstract 10.1002/(SICI)1098-2361(1997)16:23.3.CO;2-C The study of behavioral laterality in humans and nonhumans can contribute to our understanding of brain evolution and functional similarities across species. Few studies have focused on cetaceans. This report exams lateralized behaviors in two captive bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Observations were made by videotaping through a 90 × 150 cm underwater one-way […]
Body mass and food intake in captive, breeding bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus
Abstract 10.1002/zoo.1430100603.abs Body mass (BM) was recorded regularly during pregnancy in four female Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). Daily food intakes were recorded for each animal before and after parturition. BM increase occurred variably between 2 and 5 months of gestation, and at parturition mass increases averaged 41.2% of initial prepregnancy mass. Changes in […]
Bubble Ring Play of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus): Implications for Cognition
Research on the cognitive capacities of dolphins and other cetaceans (whales and porpoises) has importance for the study of comparative cognition, particularly with other large-brained social mammals, such as primates. One of the areas in which cetaceans can be compared with primates is that of object manipulation and physical causality, for which there is an […]
Cardiac response to acoustic playback experiments in the captive bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)
Acoustic recordings were used to investigate the cardiac responses of a captive dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) to sound playback stimuli. A suction-cup hydrophone placed on the ventral midline of the dolphin produced a continuous heartbeat signal while the dolphin was submerged. Heartbeats were timed by applying a matched-filter to the phonocardiogram. Significant heart rate accelerations were […]
Into the brains of whales
Whilst studies on cetaceans have focused on a few populations of just a few species, various complex behaviours and social structures that support the notion that cetaceans should be regarded as intelligent animals have been revealed. The evidence to support this is reviewed here and is best developed for some odontocete species, although recent studies […]
Responsible whale watching and whale welfare
No abstract available
Animal ethics and the work of the International Whaling Commission
No abstract