The two survivors remain alone today.
For more than seventeen years, they haven't seen the sun, or
swam in a straight line under or in real waves, or hunted fish,
or rooted around in the sand with their rostrums to search for
small invertebrates.
At the end of such a long captivity, a dolphin isn't quite a
dolphin anymore in the psychological sense of the term.
The lack of a social life renders them apathetic, fragile and
defenseless, depending on humans.
After the deaths of four companions, they feel all alone despite
their intelligence and ability to adapt.
Captivity provoques psychophysiological dammages that require a
slow and progressive rehabilitation.
A. That which signifies a rehabilitation
It includes at least the following phases:
- Forgetting of human dominance
Not to respond to whistles, not to do flips on command, for
example.
- The unlearning of other behaviors
acquired in captivity
(swimming all the time with the head out of water, notably) and
the relearning of the codes and social gestures common to wild
dolphins, notably, thanks to the help of one or many wild
dolphins living in the area.
- The readaptation to large spaces
Most dolphins that have been long term captives become
agoraphobic and feel vertigo above a deep bottom. They don't dare
to explore the submarine valleys or to make long divides during
apnea. A diver or another dolphin invites them.
- Relearning the modes of hunting in the
natural context.
To seize a living fish is in itself an exercise that must be
relearned after having been fed dead fish for so long.
B. Historic precedents
Even in the opinion of the captivity industry, rehabilitations are generally deemed a success. But what about after such a long period of continuous captivity? We reveal here the most remarkable cases:
1993
Flipper, a male tursiops was released from Laguna, Brazil, after
about ten years in continuous captivity and in waters where he
was born (native reintroduction). Since then, Flipper has been
seen along the coast over more than 155 miles, and most often
accompanied by other dolphins. He was last seen in 1994.
1992
Mama is a female tursiops released after seventeen years of
captivity in her water of origin in the Bahamas (Claridge and
Balcomb, 1993). No specific monitoring was put into place but the
dolphin was photo-identified without a doubt more than eight
months after liberation. Mama was in the company of wild
dolphins.
1991
Rocky (male), Missie (female) and Silver (male), three tursiops
released near the islands of Turk and Caicos, at the end of 20,
22, and 15 years of continuous captivity (Klinowska and Brown,
1985). In the acclimatization pool, they learned to hunt living
fish then were put in the ocean in September 1991. All of them
have been seen on many occasions and the last observation of
Silver dates from 1994, accompanied by Jojo, ambassador of the
Providenciales. This was a "non-native reintroduction",
but this one went off perfectly, in spite of the furious
propaganda against the release by the owners of the British
dolphinarium.
1987
Joe (male) and Rosie (female) are two tursiops released July 13,
1987 from Wassaw Island, Georgie after seven years of captivity.
(Cayle and Hickman, 1988) All the reports of their activities
indicate that they are in good health and are perfectly
reintegrated.
They maintain regular relations with groups of resident dolphins.
C. Specialized organization
One main organization exist that is specialized in this type of rehabilitation.
INTERNATIONAL DOLPHIN
WATCH
Civic Center Plaza
1200 Third Avenue , suite 1624
sabn Diego, CA 92101 -4112,
USA
E-mail: idp@rain.org
Ric O'Barry is the principal organizer and person in charge of
this association. He is concerned by the number of problems of
our Belgian dolphins. In November 98, Ric O'Barry came and visited our two dolphins and
was ashamed by their pale skin and poor behaviour.
D. What is the future of the Antwerp
Zoo?
Far from constituting a failure for the Zoo, the rehabilitation of these last two dolphins would bring an important amelioration to the image of this institution as set by the example of the London Zoo, from now on fully invested in the protection of threatened species.
Transformed into a pavilion "Ivo and Iris Come Home", the old dolphinarium could would show a film of this historic return.
A child coming to see in 3D the life of these free dolphins
with the support of multimedia that has been already made at the
London Zoo.
Videos, animations, conferences would be also given and an
internet site would allow regular news of the two rehabilitated
dolphins to be sent from the American observation bases (ex:
Project Pod in Florida).
The Zoo could also organize and coordinate whale watching expeditions in the North Sea (the marine reserve at Westhoek) for the meeting of our wild seals and...sometimes, of our native "Belgian" dolphins.