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Another dolphin faces life in captivity
A dolphinarium in the Ukraine is celebrating the birth of a new dolphin. The latest arrival at the dolphinarium in Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odessa, a calf born less than a week ago, seems destined to become a performing star alongside his mother and father. So says his trainer, thrilled at the relatively rare dolphin birth in captivity.
| The calf, to be named in a public contest, remained close by as the dolphin trainer put his mother and father, Liliya and Gavryusha, and two other charges through their paces in a 40-minute show. The dolphins take her for rides and deposit her gently back on the pool's edge, as well as performing the more routine tricks of leaping through hoops and bouncing balls off their noses and tails. |
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Two sea lions also do their bit, catching hoops or dancing and clapping to pop music.
It is 10 years since the last dolphin birth in Ukraine. It was unclear that Liliya was pregnant until less than two months from the end of a year-long gestation. The dolphinarium said they exempted her from difficult jumps to keep her as safe as possible so she would not land heavily on her belly in the water.
The Soviet Union had a long history of dolphin research, not least because of their use by the military to detect or plant mines, a practice that has thankfully been abandoned. A second dolphinarium at Sevastopol further south in Crimea specializes in dolphin therapy for handicapped children.
The new calf, nicknamed "Odyssey" by staff in honor of his city of birth, will almost certainly be a performer. And he appears to be learning fast.
Marine Connection Campaigns Officer Judith Scott states "The fact that the dolphinarium industry in the Ukraine has been relatively unsuccessful in breeding attempts in the past, stressed by the trainers comments in this case, would appear to support our view that these highly social cetaceans are totally unsuited to a life in captivity and why captures from the wild still continue to supply this industry's demand for new animals to stock existing or stock new facilities."
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