Commerson's Dolphins

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okapikpr

Well-Known Member
I've done some rough internet research on the history of this species in captivity. Most information I found is of the Sea World parks' animals.

In 1983, Sea World San Diego acquired several Commerson's Dolphins from South America and held them on display from 1984 to 1998. Recently a new 150,000 gallon tank was built near the new Atlantis wateride in the park and houses 1.2 dolphins. There have been 14 births at the San Diego park, the first occured in 1985.

Sea World Ohio also housed several Commerson's Dolphins in an exhibit called Patagonia Passage with Magellanic Penguins (mixed species?). In 2000 several died from colotis. In 2001, the park was sold to Six Flags and 4 dolphins were moved to Sea World San Diego.

In 2004, 1.0 Commerson's Dolphin, Yogi, arrived at the San Diego park from the Duisburg Zoo along with a Belgua whale.

Last Year, 4.0 Commerson's Dolphins arrived at the new Aquatica park from Sea World San Diego. They are housed in a 240,000 gallon tank with enclosed water slides through the tank. (I had only heard previous reports of two dolphins in Aquatica, but the site below provides more information than any of my previous sources)

Here is the current population makeup according to this website:
Mammal Babble

Sea World San Diego
1.0 Juan Wild Caught 1983
0.1 Betsy Wild Caught 1983
0.1 Ringer born July 2000 at Sea World, CA

Aquatica, Orlando
1.0 Fabio born in captivity
1.0 Keebler born in captivity
1.0 Pepe Wild caught 1983
1.0 Ross born in captivity

The website also did not mention Yogi, the Duisburg dolphin that arrived in 2004 or another dolphin, Rachel, that was born to Betsy in San Diego recently (last 5 years or so) according to a Sea World website.

Also a link provided in the mixed-species exhibits thread provided another holder of Commerson's Dolphin from Japan, Toba Aquarium. Thanks Sun Wukong.

TOBA AQUARIUM[JAPAN]Introduction of exhibition

Does anyone else have any information on this species in captivity?
 
I have some pictures of them at Seaworld, and I have a book about them. I'll write some information up later for you okapikpr, I'm off to a flute lesson now!
 
@okapikpr: You're welcome. Besides Toba, Japan has several institutions keeping the species, like the Marinepia Matsushima Aquarium, the Shimonoseki Marine
Science Museum or the Notojima Aquarium.
 
I've been on the lookout for any information on this species, since i heared at least some were going to move to aquatica. You got a lot further then me researching this animal species, i couldn't find anything on which (and how many) animals would be moved to aquatica.

The only thing i can add to your information is that Yogi, the animal that came from Duisburg did not integrate well with the existing group at seaworld, was kept alone for a few months and then died, being the oldest ever Commerson's in captivity.

My usual source for marine-mammal related information is Whale Web (forum section), but recently it has been very quiet. I also couldn't find any information on there about Commerson's in captivity. If i find anything else i'll post it on here.
 
okapikpr said:
@ jwer: How old was Yogi when he died?
Click to expand...

Quick search gave me this information:
Commerson's Dolphin's in Duisburg Zoo:

kept: 1978 till 2004
No breeding
- 1978 Import of 2.4 animals, of which 1.2 where destined to go to a Dutch dolphinarium (i don't know which one, at the time there were several in Holland); according to the yearreport first animals ever in captivity
- 1979 1.4 died after just a few weeks, just 1.0 "Yogi" survived
- 1980 Import, of 2.2.1, of which 0.2.1 died that same year; 2.0 "Pepe" and "Gaucho" survived
- 1982 1.0 "Gaucho" dies
- 1984 3.3 import; 2.3 died quickly, 1,0 "Busso" survived
- 1989 1.0 "Pepe" dies
- 1991 1.0 "Busso" dies
- 2004 1.0 "Yogi" send to Sea World California, San Diego

Information translated from the german zootierliste @ ZootierlisteHomepage

Since Yogi was allready full-grown when captured, he was at least 26 years old, but as far as i remember he was estimated well in his 30's. I'll have a look around what i can find...
 
I visited Duisburg in 1985 and they had three "jacobitas" as they called them, which must have been Busso, Pepe and Yogi. They were in a rather too-small pool with two belugas, and a short show was put on daily. At that time Duisburg had a big collection of marine mammals but I felt the accommodation was all on the small side, esp the two inia which were in a cupboard sized tank (I understand the surviving inia now has an excellent new home). The importation of 18 commerson's dolphins over 8 years with very high early mortality and no breeding is a rather sad statistic, I wonder if the higher mortality in the females was just by chance or if there was another factor. The zoo at that time generally had some very interesting and unusual species (eg the only red river hogs in Europe - how times have changed).
 
Sorry to make a digression:
@Pygathrix: Yes, back then Duisburg was one of Germany's top zoos in terms of zoological rarities (including Tasmanian Devils)-mostly due to the more or less controversial zoo director Wolfgang Gewalt(+). Most of the RRH's kept nowadays in European zoos have "Duisburgian" ancestors.

I'm personally a great fan of the commerson dolphin, yet information about the status of the species in captivity, especially about the ones in Japan, is hard to come by.
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It's a shame that this species isn't kept in more institutions. While keeping marine mammals in captive is a controversial subject for most people I think that Commerson's Dolphins make a better candidate than most other cetaceans due to their small size, meaning it's easier to provide a spacious home in captivity even for a group of Commerson's Dolphins than say an Orca.

Is this information still up-to-date, the only places housing them in the US are Sea World San Diego and the Aquatica park?

Also, some info regarding their exhibition at Sea World Ohio: When I visited in 1999 Commerson's Dolphins were exhibited in the Patagonia Passage exhibit with Magallenic Penguins as noted above. There were also Commerson's Dolphins used in part of a show there, pretty sure in the same pool that the Orca show was done in. Now whether these were the same dolphins as housed in the Patagonia Passage exhibit I'm not sure. I have some photos of the Commerson's Dolphins in the exhibit as well as the show from '99 but my scanner isn't working at the moment.
 
What is the current status of the captive Commerson's population?

Are they all in Orlando Sea World now? Is the population dwindling down to zero, and does anyone know what happened? Did the captive-born individuals just not have any more babies?
 
As it stands, the population in the US is in poor shape. All of the breeding age animals except for a 1.1 pair are related. However, that pair is problematic as the male is at aquatica and the female is at San Diego. They have done an AI on the female and she conceived a calf, however it sadly died at birth. This female (ringer) has also bred with her father which resulted in a pregnancy, but no calf.

At this point the best solution for the US would be to transfer the un-related male (pepe) to San Diego to breed with their female ringer. She is only 13 and still has about 10 (15 if we're lucky) years of reproductive life left.

However, the situation is not so dire in Japan. The imported a large number of dolphins back in the day along with seaworld, and amazingly the Commersons have been a species of cetacean that the Japanese have actually managed to have fairly good long term success with.

At present there are 3 or 4 facilities in Japan holding Commersons with some 15 or so dolphins and breeding occurs regularly.

If all goes well and ideally some co-operation is fostered between the US and Japan, along with careful management of bloodlines to avoid inbreeding for as long as possible, we can hopefully see the captive population grow in size and remain in a relatively good state for at least 3-5 new generations of animals. Sadly there are only 4-5 distinct captive lines, so the addition of new founder stock will be needed sooner rather than later if we are to have the captive population flourish long into the future and grow to a larger and more secure size. With diluted/carefully managed inbreeding we may be able to prolong the population for even longer, however that is merely delaying the inevitable need to either acquire new blood from the wild or allow the captive population to wither away.

If anyone else wants to discuss, I am a huge fan of Cetaceans and a strong advocate of them being held in captivity :)
 
Indeed! In the 3 years since the last post in this thread, several things have changed in the captive population.

Currently, there are 13 Commerson's Dolphins housed between Japan and the US. The population breaks down as follows:

Aquatica, USA

1.0 Juan (wild born, ~35 years old)
1.0 Pepe (Pancho* x Betsy*, 23 years old)
1.0 Ross (Juan x Betsy*, 18 years old)
0.1 Ringer (Juan x Oreo*, 16 years old)

Toba Aquarium, Japan

1.0 Kai (Multi* x Haruka*, 19 years old)
0.1 Laura (Cruz* x Will*, 27 years old)
0.1 Stella (Cruz* x Tierra*, 15 years old)
1.0 Light (Kai x Stella, 1 year old)

Yokohama Hakkeijima Sea Paradise, Japan

1.0 Sky (Kai x Stella, 3 years old)
0.1 Sakura (Cruz* x Sarah, 6 years old)

Sendai Umino-mori Aquarium, Japan

0.1 Sarah (Viento* x Aura*, 25 years old)
1.0 Bonn (Cruz* x Tierra*, 18 years old)
1.0 Tsubasa (Bonn x Sarah, 3 years old)

To note, Kai may have been sired by either Liner or Kurobe. Additionally, Laura is currently HEAVILY pregnant and due within the next month or so. The sire is Kai. Animals with the little * behind the name are deceased.
 
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