No chance for dolphin calves

The natural survival rate for bottlenose dolphins within their first year of life in the wild is 20 % . The death toll of captive born dolphins is much higher. According to the US Marine Mammal Inventory Report did between 1960 and 1993 more than 50 % of the dolphins born in captivity within the first four months of life (133 of 261 animals). As the US law does not oblige to register abortions the real death rate may be much higher.

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In the European Union died between 1980 and 1991 nineteen of 36 bottlenose dolphins born in captivity within the first month of life.

In Germany died between 1967 and 1994 according to a study undertaken by Stefan Austermühle, Executive Director of Mundo Azul, 27 of 35 dolphins born in captivity within the first year of life.

According to another study covering the time from 1965 and 1992 in Germany and Switzerland a total of 42 births were registered. From these only 5 were still alive in 1992, representing a death rate of 88 %.

The German veterinarian Christina Schnug exlained the high death toll with: “… lack of space, which makes it impossible to avoid fights, the lack of milk in the mothers, as well as the lack of correct behavior when providing milk by the unexperienced mothers.”

Studies on captive orcas show similar results: After more than 40 years in which at least 185 orcas have been held in captivity, with 74 known pregnancies, only 33 viable calves (surviving past one year) have been produced (a 44.6 percent survival rate). Therefore, orca birth rates and infant mortality rates have been at best no better in captivity than in the wild and have almost certainly been far worse.

The display industry engages in hypocritical reasoning. On the one hand, it claims that captivity is safer than the wild, in which case the mortality rates of captive-born calves should be lower than in the wild. On the other hand, after every failed birth, it states that captive infant mortality rates similar to those in the wild should be acceptable.

The survival chances of Wayras baby in 2005 was slim from the beginning. The babies’ deadly accident in fact was predictable. The inexerienced mother did not count with the support of other dolphins. According to inofficial reports sh tried to help her baby out of a corner in the pool and pushed it so had against the wall that the baby died of internal wounds. These kind of cases are common in captivity.

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Hotel Los Delfines – Dolphin jail or conservation project?

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Page author: Stefan Austermühle

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