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Activity Budget Comparisons Using Long-Term Observations of a Group of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) under Human Care: Implications for Animal Welfare.

ABSTRACT: Zoos and aquaria must provide optimal husbandry conditions and the highest welfare standards for their animals. How the welfare state of an animal or a group of animals can be precisely assessed is currently under debate, and new approaches are necessary to reliably evaluate changes in welfare. One particular measure that is easily applicable is behavioral observations. However, for dolphins and other cetaceans under human care, reliable behavior-based measures are rare. Using long-term observations of a group of bottlenose dolphins, we investigate how their activity budgets and different behaviors changed over time and are impacted by construction noise. Additionally, we investigate whether behavioral differences are also reflected in changes in the dolphins' performance during daily training sessions. Our results show that construction noise significantly alters the dolphins' behavior. Play behavior decreases during construction periods; most importantly, the frequency of fast swimming activities significantly increased, and at the same time, a decrease in training performance is found. Additionally, inter- and intraindividual behavioral differences are attributed to factors, such as age or weaning. Significant changes in a dolphin's activity budget can also pose potential welfare concerns. Thus, this study highlights the importance of regularly assessing and analyzing the behavior of dolphins under human care. Behavioral observations are essential welfare indicators and can-when complemented with other measures, such as assessment of training performance-provide zoo staff with important information about each individual's state of welfare.

SUBMITTER: Huettner T

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8300398 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:In recent decades, animal welfare science has evolved to utilize a multidisciplinary approach to assess the welfare of animals in accredited zoos and aquariums. Science-based animal welfare assessments have become an essential component of management programs and widespread application is expected by animal care professionals. Management practices for bottlenose dolphins in accredited facilities incorporate several programs that potentially impact animal welfare including environmental enrichment and animal training. Additionally, habitat characteristics, such as the dimensions of the habitat, have been proposed to affect welfare. While accredited facilities are required to meet high standards of care, habitat characteristics and management practices are not standardized across locations. Knowledge and subsequent application of these practices and habitat characteristics can enhance our understanding of factors associated with positive welfare. As part of a larger study of dolphin welfare titled "Towards understanding the welfare of cetaceans in zoos and aquariums" (colloquially called the Cetacean Welfare Study), survey data were collected from 86 bottlenose dolphins in 40 habitats at 38 facilities in seven countries. The major aims of this paper are to provide general descriptive information regarding dolphin management in accredited zoos and aquariums and to provide supplemental context to the other research published from the Cetacean Welfare Study data set. This paper provides a review of current habitat characteristics and management practices at those 38 accredited zoos and aquariums. These data enabled the identification and quantification of how cetacean management practices differed between participating facilities accredited by the Alliance for Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums and the Association of Zoos & Aquariums. Variables were selected based on their potential association with welfare including the physical habitat, environmental enrichment, and training programs. The variables were also used for subsequent research in this collection of related papers to investigate important connections between potential indicators of welfare and habitat characteristics, environmental enrichment, and training programs.

Project description:As apex predators, cetaceans are recognized as sentinels for the health of marine ecosystems. The ability to identify the impacts of anthropogenic contamination on the health of a species requires long term monitoring to establish baseline health parameters. This makes health measurements that can be sampled from free ranging animals highly desirable. In the current study, we investigate the utility of skin gene expression profiling to monitor the physiological, health, and contaminant exposure status in bottlenose dolphins. Remote integument biopsies were obtained from bottlenose dolphins at three locations in the northern Gulf of Mexico prior to oil exposure (May 2010) and during summer and winter of the two years (2010-2011) following their exposure to oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. A bottlenose dolphin-specific oligonucleotide microarray was used to characterize the skin transcriptomes of 94 individuals from three genetically distinguishable populations in Barataria Bay, Louisiana, Chandeleur Sound, Louisiana, and Mississippi Sound, Mississippi. Location did not significantly affect the transcriptome patterns of the dolphins included in the study. In contrast, season had a profound effect on gene expression, with nearly one-third of all genes on the array differing significantly in expression between winter and the warmer seasons (p<0.01, fold-change >1.5). Gene ontology enrichment analysis revealed that processes related to cell proliferation, motility and differentiation dominated the seasonal differences in expression, which likely reflects the differences in ambient temperature to which the skin is exposed, and possibly changes in blood flow. More subtle differences were seen between spring and summer transcriptomes (1.5% differentially expressed), with two presumed oil-exposed animals presenting gene expression profiles more similar to the summer (exposed) animals than the other spring animals. Xenobiotic pathway components also showed some seasonal trends, which may reflect crosstalk between xenobiotic pathways and those regulating corticoids, hormones, and cytokines. Seasonal effects have not previously been considered in studies assessing gene expression in cetaceans, but clearly must be taken into account when applying transcriptomic analyses to investigate their exposure or health status.

Dataset Information

Activity Budget Comparisons Using Long-Term Observations of a Group of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) under Human Care: Implications for Animal Welfare.

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