tags: captive dolphins, SeaWorld Orlando, bubble ring, animal behavior, streaming video
This streaming video shows the dolphins at SeaWorld Orlando's Dolphin Cove as they artfully create and play with underwater bubble rings and hear what SeaWorlds trainers, educators and guests have to say about this fun and fascinating behavior [3:25]
- Log in to post comments
I love this -- thanks for posting it. I found an attempt to explain these bubble rings here.
/ Mats
The real question is whether or not this behaviour is found in the wild, or is it a result of something like boredom, related to being in captivity?
Great point April is there any proof this is a natural occurrence?
Neat Video.
Beluga Whales do this too, which makes me assume that it probably occurs naturally.
I heard Ken Ramirez (head trainer at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago) actually talk about bubble rings and Belugas several weeks ago.
The Belugas will blow bubble rings out of both their mouth and their blow hole. However, they do not blow bubble rings at nearly the frequency that these dolphins do. Ken Ramirez actually worked with one aquarium in Japan to teach the whales to blow bubble rings on cue. (If interested, you can read about how he put the behavior on cue here: http://www.mail-archive.com/icehorses@yahoogroups.com/msg05464.html )
cheers,
Mary H.
http://stalecheerios.com/blog -- a serial for positive animal training