Captivity kills

In a study the biologist Randy Wells wrote about the age o dolphins in the wild: “Two thirds of the dolphins which we registered for the first time 20 years ago are still alive. We have one dolphin that is aproximately 50 years old and several others which are in the forties.”

Acording to a study by Stefan Austermühle, Executive Director of Mundo Azul, in Germany between 1967 and 1994 a total of 193 cetaceans had been held in captivity. Off these in 1994 only 33 where still alive. None of them had survived 20 years in captivity. None of them was older than thirty years. 25% of the bottlenose dolphins had been died during the first five years in captivity.

Sign our online-petition against dolphin captivity in the Hotel Los Delfines

Of at least 185 orcas held in captivity since 1961 (wild-caught or captive-born), 139 (75 percent) are now dead. The maximum life span for orcas is currently estimated to be 60 years for males and 80 or 90 years for females. Various analytical approaches have demonstrated that the overall mortality rate of captive orcas is at least two and a half times as high as that of wild orcas and age- and sex-specific annual mortality rates range from two to six times as high.

Nineteen orcas have died at Sea World parks since 1985: three were young calves, and the others were in their teens and twenties. To date, only 25 orcas are known to have survived more than 20 years in captivity, and only two have survived in captivity for more than 35 years.

The numbers give a strong testimony: captivity causes a cruel selection. The most sensitive animals die in the first years of captivity. Some animals manage to better adapt and may live up to twenty years in captivity, suffering chronicle diseases and mental disorders – but they never reach the age of wild dolphins in their natural habitat. This is because captivity can not substitute the natural environment.

Sign our online-petition against dolphin captivity in the Hotel Los Delfines

Stay in touch with Mundo Azul! Sign up to our google group “Mundo Azul International” and receive news about our work and nature conservation in Peru, Web site updates, action alerts, suggestions on how you can participate or help, volunteer opportunities, internship and job openings and much more.

Become a member of our Facebook group:

Hotel Los Delfines – Dolphin jail or conservation project?

Become a member of our Facebook group “Mundo Azul International“

Page author: Stefan Austermühle

Read more about dolphin captivity and the Hotel los Delfines at: