Dolphin Welfare Assessment under Professional Care: ‘Willingness to Participate’, an Indicator Significantly Associated with Six Potential ‘Alerting Factors’
Résumé
In dolphinaria, dolphins and their trainers build relationships and bonds due to the nature,
closeness and repeatability of their interactions, hence training sessions are deemed appropriate to
evaluate dolphin welfare. Qualitative Behavioural Assessments (QBAs) have been used to study
human–animal relationships and are included in several animal welfare assessments. We introduce
here the first QBA aiming to analyse dolphin–trainer interactions during training sessions in terms of
dolphin welfare. Our results show that “Willingness to Participate” (WtP) was significantly associated
to six other parameters: high-speed approach, high level of excitement, high number of positive
responses to trainers’ signals, rare refusal to perform certain behaviours, rare spontaneous departure
behaviours and fast approach once the trainer entered into the pool. Therefore, we suggest using
WtP and those “alerting factors” when assessing dolphin–trainer interactions under professional
care. The evaluation should also consider the time of day, the dolphin’s age, trainer experience level,
the nature of the training sessions and to a lesser extent the sex of the dolphins, as contributing and
modulating factors. The factor eye contact has been used in various HARs studies and has been
proven to be a valid indicator in welfare research works, hence potentially deserving further research.
These results demonstrate the pertinence and feasibility of this approach, the ease of use of this
methodology by professionals in zoo/aquarium settings and the appropriateness of the obtained
results within the holistic frame of animal welfare.