How Caring For a Baby Dolphins - Dolphin Quest Bermuda

Well, dolphin reproduction is an important part of the Dolphin Quest management system. Dolphin babies are very sensitive, and so we asked the question, can we do the exams that are so important in the first several days of life? One area in which our owners and our vets really push forward the care for our animals here is a project that we now know as Project Newborn. We're able to learn what healthy parameters in these critical early stages of life looks like so that we can then identify if any of these parameters are different from what we now know is healthy and normal for a newborn calf. So during Project Newborn, what happens is the marine mammal specialists go into a shallow area of the lagoon and invite the dolphin to come on over and bring her calf so that the people can gently wrap their arm around both mom and calf, during which we make sure that they always face each other so they can see each other, they can communicate with each other. And while they are in a hug from the trainers, we can then collect blood samples from the calf, which is really unique and important because it tells us so much about those critical first days of life. We can collect measurements from the calf. Our dolphins are trained from a very young age to give all these samples voluntarily through training, which is built on positive reinforcement. These newborns are so young that they're not yet trained to give these samples voluntarily like all of our other dolphins do. So rather than having to wait for them to be trained on it, we're still able to collect those very valuable bits of information from the calf. It's such an exciting project to be a part of because not only does it benefit our animals, but it also benefits the health of other animals, whether it's in the wild or at other facilities.