By Victoria GillScience
correspondent, BBC News
28 May 2018
Scientists working with dolphins
at a marine park near Paris have attempted to measure how the animals feel
about aspects of their lives in captivity.
In what researchers say is the
first project to examine captivity "from the animals' perspective",
the team assessed what activities dolphins looked forward to most.
They found that the marine
mammals most keenly anticipated interacting with a familiar human.
The results, they say, show that
"better human-animal bonds equals better welfare".
The study, published in the
journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science, was part of a three-year project to
measure dolphin welfare in a captive setting.
Lead researcher Dr Isabella Clegg
worked at Parc Astérix, a theme park with one of France's largest
dolphinariums.
With colleagues at the University
of Paris animal behaviour lab, she designed experiments to decode dolphin
behaviour - essentially looking for physical postures that indicate how the
animals were feeling.
"We wanted to find out what
activities in captivity they like most," Dr Clegg told the BBC.
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