First Advisor

Deborah Duffield

Date of Award

Spring 6-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Biology and University Honors

Department

Biology

Language

English

Subjects

Captive marine mammals -- Environmental enrichment, Zoos -- Accreditation, Aquariums -- Accreditation, Aquatic animal welfare, Captive seals -- Environmental enrichment, Captive dolphins -- Environmental enrichment, Animal welfare

DOI

10.15760/honors.1279

Abstract

Animal care and conservation facilities such as zoos, aquaria, and marine mammal parks often utilize a variety of enrichments to deter stereotypic behaviors and improve overall animal welfare. Facilities that go through the intense accreditation process of one or more accreditation organizations must uphold the animal care standards and education requirements that these organizations call for. These care standards typically include regulations regarding animal training and enrichment, though the extent to which these regulations go into detail often vary from species to species and between organizations. The goal of this review was to assess the current standard of animal enrichment used for captive marine mammals by summarizing the history of animal welfare as it relates to marine mammals, as well as discuss what marine mammal enrichments are utilized today and what future enrichment practices may look like based on current research. It was concluded that the scope of a given accreditation organization can have an impact on how specific regulations are regarding marine mammal training and enrichment and that future animal welfare and research studies will likely continue searching for practices to decrease stereotypic behaviors, especially as collaborative research methods become more prominent.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/37858

Included in

Zoology Commons

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