Category: zoos and aquaria

Leaping lizards!

May 15, 2014 • 11:53 am

Before someone corrects me, yes, I know that crocodiles aren’t lizards (they’re in different orders of reptiles), but the title of the post will resonate with you if you’re “of a certain age,” as they say.

TheYouTube notes give the location, and I’m not sure how I feel about keeping crocs in captivity and having them do tricks for people. I suspect, though, that, being sedentary, they don’t suffer from this as much as do beluga whales, porpoises, or orcas:

Thanks to http://www.crocosauruscove.com in Darwin, Australia. You can feed crocodiles, swim with crocodiles, and get really up close to them. Feeding them using a fishing rod is a really unique experience, as you can see they can jump completely out of the water.

The behavior is surprising, though. Given that they probably never do this in nature, it must be something of a spandrel (a byproduct of another evolved behavior), supported by the observation that they seem to leap by making swimming motions.

Further notes by Greg Mayer

These are saltwater crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) at Crocosaurus Cove, a reptile zoo in Darwin, Northern Territory. “Salties” are known for their ability to jump vertically, but this is the only film in which I’ve seen them completely clear the water. (There’s a possibility that the crocodile whose tail left the water may have been hanging on to a “fishing” line, and thus been partially pulled up, but although no segment shows both the head and the tail out of water simultaneously, I think they are actually leaving the water on their own.) The usual context for seeing these vertical leaps by salties are by wild crocodiles which have become habituated to the presence of tour boats and the food proffered from them.

"Brutus", the one-armed saltwater crocodile, jumping for tourists on the Adelaide River, Northern Territory. Photo from Courier Mail, Brisbane.
“Brutus”, the one-armed saltwater crocodile, jumping for tourists on the Adelaide River, Northern Territory. Photo from Courier Mail, Brisbane.

“Brutus”, said to be 5.5 m long,  is much larger than the crocs in the film, and I don’t think he would be able to leave the water completely. (You can judge the size of a saltie by the shape of the head– they start out narrow, and get relatively broader and more massive as they get bigger.)

The way the crocs jump is by using their standard swimming motion: lateral undulation, legs tucked in, with the tail providing most of the propulsion. In jumping, they swim straight up (instead of more horizontally), and develop enough head of steam to partially or entirely break the water surface. Jerry supposes that they never do this in nature, but I’m not so sure. A number of crocodilians are known to skulk around waterbird rookeries, eating the birds that may fall out of the trees into the water, and there’s no reason to think they wouldn’t jump up to grab a bird as well. Here’s a photo of a Nile crocodile going after a grey heron from the National Geographic photo contest. (But note: the water that this Nile croc is in is much shallower, and it may be pushing off with its feet rather than its tail.)

Nile crocodile jumping for grey heron. Photo from Adelaide Advertiser.
Nile crocodile jumping for grey heron. Photo from Adelaide Advertiser.

h/t: Matthew Cobb

Does SeaWorld tranquilize its animals?

April 4, 2014 • 9:03 am

I’ve always been critical of places where large, captive animals are displayed to the public as entertainment, and aquaria that house large cetaceans (or mammals like sea otters) are a prime offender. For me, SeaWorld is the most egregious of these, and I’ve posted about it, and about the recent movie “Blackfish,” made about its orcas (killer whales) here.

As I wrote at the time:

Some aquaria will argue that keeping such animals in captivity helps us better understand their biology, enabling us to conserve them better. But orcas, seals, and belugas are not endangered, and at any rate real refereed scientific publications from large aquaria or sea-mammal emporia are thin on the ground.  Let’s admit it: places like SeaWorld are in business for one reason: to make money, no matter how much they claim to be educational organizations. And yes, I’ll admit that some of the keepers and employees do love and care about their charges, but it doesn’t matter. Those charges should be swimming free in the sea.

. . . There is no justification for keeping orcas, beluga whales, and other sea mammals in captivity.  They belong in the wild, where they would be if they had a choice, but are simply exploited as cash cows for institutions and corporations.  I urge the readers to stay away from places like SeaWorld, where the animals are even asked to do tricks before a paying audience. It’s ineffably sad, and demeaning to these magnificent creatures.  We are the only species that enslaves other species to entertain and enrich ourselves. [Last sentence modified from earlier post]

These captive animals often appear stressed to me, engaging in repetitive, neurotic behaviors that bespeak some type of mental distress. You’ve all seen this in zoos, with bears or tigers neurotically pacing back and forth in their cages. And it always breaks my heart. I no longer go to zoos or aquaria.

It turns out that aquaria recognize this distress, but apparently have chosen, in at least one case, to relieve it with—wait for it—tranquilizers. And that place is SeaWorld

According to a story in ZME Science and an article in BuzzFeed, this information emerged during a dispute between SeaWorld and Marineland (the latter a theme park and aquarium in Niagara Falls, Canada) over the transfer of an orca.  During a deposition that took place during the dispute, a veterinarian found out that an aggressive orca at SeaWorld had been given benzodiazepine, a sedative and tranquilizer (Valium is one form) to prevent it from hurting other whales. The testimony, which is at the BuzzFeed site, includes the statement below:

Screen shot 2014-04-04 at 8.05.57 AM
Now this is only a single animal, and we shouldn’t go off half-cocked about every orca or animal being tranquilized, but one wonders how many have been. The response of SeaWorld does not reassure me that this is a one-off occurrence:

A spokesperson for SeaWorld Fred Jacobs defended the medication in an emailed statement.

“Benzodiazepines are sometimes used in veterinary medicine for the care and treatment of animals, both domestic and in a zoological setting,” Jacobs said. “These medications can be used for sedation for medical procedures, premedication prior to general anesthesia, and for the control of seizures. The use of benzodiazepines is regulated, and these medications are only prescribed to animals by a veterinarian. Their use for cetacean healthcare, including killer whales, is limited, infrequent, and only as clinically indicated based on the assessment of the attending veterinarian. There is no higher priority for SeaWorld than the health and well-being of the animals in its care.”

This doesn’t answer the question. It would behoove SeaWorld to come clean about whether this tranquilizing of orcas is unique, or has happened more often.  If it’s a regular practice when orcas get antsy, it’s all the more reason to question the existence of using large, free-roaming sea mammals as entertainment.
BuzzFeed adds this:
The questions about the drugs given to the whales, which also include a range of antibiotics, come as SeaWorld is reeling from a critical documentary. Blackfish tells the story of a killer whale named Tilikum, who’s been accused of killing three people but is still retained by SeaWorld. Tilikum’s genes are found in 54% of the whales in SeaWorld’s current whale collection, and has fathered at least 21 whales from artificial insemination.
I haven’t seen “Blackfish,” by the way, but it’s gotten tremendously high ratings on Rotten Tomatoes (98% critics approval, 91% public) and approbation in other place.  If you’ve seen it, weigh in below.
Animal welfare groups have chimed in against this kind of drugging. The statement below seems eminently reasonable to me:

The founder of the Orca Research Trust, Ingrid Visser, said the drugs are likely treating a condition caused by captivity, and that their violence is the result of stress, not native aggression.

“They do not cope with being kept in these tanks. They survive to some degree, but they don’t thrive to any degree,” Visser said. “They show stereotypical behaviors that are abnormal, repetitive behaviors like head bobbing, chewing on concrete, and self mutilation by banging the side of their heads on the side of the tank, and there isn’t a single orca living in captivity where you cannot see one of these behaviors, and in many of them you see multiple examples of these behaviors.”

Yes, I’ve seen those behaviors, and I’ve seen them here in Chicago at the Shedd Aquarium. When I described the incident to aquarium officials (I believe it was a seal, but it could have been an otter, swimming stereotypically and repetitively in a very narrow tank), my complaint was ignored.

PETA has made a characteristically over-the-top criticism, but really, read it. The animals are indeed kept to do what I see as stupid tricks, though I have no idea whether they are, as PETA maintains, “full of psychotropic drugs”:

PETA’s president, Ingrid Newkirk, accused SeaWorld of “pump[ing] these marine slaves full of psychotropic drugs in order to force them to perform stupid tricks.”

Once again I reiterate my plea—which will be ignored—to stop confining large, free-roaming mammals in small aquaria, especially for public entertainment. The educational benefits are minimal, especially when compared to the distress of the animals. Some people defend this practice, saying that, “Well, the animals seem healthy and content,” but a Martian, observing human prisoners in a jail, would say the same thing. Like the human prisoners, the animals, if given a choice, wouldn’t be there.  (And, of course, there are those abnormal behaviors. . )

I want them set free, but that won’t happen so long as there is money to be made. In my view, these animals are confined against their will to entertain the public and enrich the owners. It’s a bad business all around.