River Dolphins in captivity!

There is some Amazon River dolphins at the Daejeon Aquaworld, in South Korea and they're from Valencia. There was 8 Indus River dolphins at the Brain Anatomy Institute in Bern (Switzerland), but I don't have any other information.
 
Chlidonias said:
it was at Marineland of Florida.

There is an interesting paper which discusses this thread's topic (captures, longevity, breedings, etc), answers many of the questions posed here, and includes Amazon, Yangtze, Indus and Ganges river dolphins, franciscanas, vaquitas, Irrawaddy dolphins, and Yangtze finless porpoises.
http://www.int-res.com/articles/esr2013/19/n019p223.pdf
Click to expand...

Thank you for that link, Chlidonias. It is indeed full of interesting informations. Another Question-what excactly is meant with"Silver Springs"in Florida which got 4 Inias in 1956 ? I could not find any Infomation about that place.

And does anybody know the current situation of Botos at valencia, after four animals has died in 2011 ? So if the Aquariums hasn't got new animals since then,only two of them left-the 38 years old female"Dalia"and the 10 Years old male"zeus".

Any infos on Boto at New York Aquarium ?
 
Bib Fortuna said:
"Silver Springs"in Florida which got 4 Inias in 1956 ? I could not find any Infomation about that place.
Click to expand...

Silver springs was a theme park/wildlife park, just outside Ocala in Florida, highlights included a Florida wildlife area, an almost complete crocodilian collection, an African safari boat journey, featuring colobus monkey, gerenuk, sable antelope and giraffe amongst others, bear country featuring 4 species of bear and a jeep safari too.

http://www.zoochat.com/22/anyone-heard-silver-springs-313885/
 
those four Amazon dolphins were harpooned in order to catch them. One female died en route to Florida, one male died soon after, and the remaining two were both males. From what I gather they were kept in a fenced-off section of the river there.
 
Chlidonias said:
those four Amazon dolphins were harpooned in order to catch them. One female died en route to Florida, one male died soon after, and the remaining two were both males. From what I gather they were kept in a fenced-off section of the river there.
Click to expand...

Shocking altogether in the means of capture , barbaric really and no place for it today or tbh back then or ever.
The shock for the dolphins that survived being transferred from the murky waters of the Amazon to what must be some of the clearest waters known in one of the sunniest places on the planet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-htRDG20neM
 
kiang said:
...murky waters of the Amazon...
Click to expand...

Just for the record, Inia are found in all the three main river types of the Amazon: whitewater rivers (muddy brown), blackwater rivers (tea colored) and clearwater rivers (transparent). Indeed, most of the Araguaian river dolphin's range is clearwater, although it also is known from some of the blackwater tributaries. I doubt this matters all that much with their small eyes and poor vision. It seems the main thing limiting Inia isn't river type but large sections with rapids. This is evident in both the Tapajós and Xingu rivers, and the separation of the Bolivian and Amazon river dolphins.
 
temp said:
Just for the record, Inia are found in all the three main river types of the Amazon: whitewater rivers (muddy brown), blackwater rivers (tea colored) and clearwater rivers (transparent). Indeed, most of the Araguaian river dolphin's range is clearwater, although it also is known from some of the blackwater tributaries. I doubt this matters all that much with their small eyes and poor vision. It seems the main thing limiting Inia isn't river type but large sections with rapids. This is evident in both the Tapajós and Xingu rivers, and the separation of the Bolivian and Amazon river dolphins.
Click to expand...

Thank you Temp:)
 
Does anybody knows the names of the two females at Duisburg ?

The first one, the albino, died in 1975 and the second female in 1976.

I know the names of the three males""Jose",and"Apure",(="Father", died in 2006)For the still living animal, mostly caleld"baby", I alsi found the names"Butu"and"Orinoko"-but whats corerct ? Baby is, I guess, only the nickname.

I cant find the names of the females, maybe"Butu"was one of them ? No information on that in any Guidebook, only"Jose"and"Apure" are in the Annual report 1975.
 
Last edited:
Females names were "Oma" and "Mutter"

Current male is called "Baby" by staff and visitors. "Butu" seems to be a nickname.

Other males were "Vater(Apure)" and "Halbstarker"
 
The living individual's "official" name is Orinoko, but he is called Baby by everybody (including most online sources). Butu is just another nickname which seems to be rarely used.

All five specimens brought to Duisburg were caught on 12 March 1975 and arrived at the zoo on 15 March 1975. They were two adult males Vater [also called Apure] and Halbstarke or Halbstarker [both spellings are used in the link below], two adult females Mutter and Oma - the latter is the albino one which is unnamed in the link below but see http://www.ceta-base.com/phinventory/deceasedphins/deadphins_duisburg.html and http://www.ceta-base.com/phinventory/hph/hph_duis.html - and Mutter's new-born son Orinoko/Baby.

From http://aquaticmammalsjournal.org/sh...hives/1985/Aquatic_Mammals_11_2/Sylvestre.pdf

I'm guessing the name Jose you mention must be Halbstarker but I haven't seen it used anywhere else.
 
Thank you both for the information and the two links. Ceatbase lists the male"Vater" as a female...

"Halbstarker"is correct. It is german and was formely used, before the dark times began when english started to get into german language,as a term for young people, nowadays known as"Teenagers".....

The Annual Report mentioned a names competion for young people to find names for the River dolphins.Because the group looked like a"Family", the"Teenagers" deciced to name them"Oma"(Grandma),"Mutter(Mother),Vater(Father)Halbstarker(Teenager)and"Baby",but the reports writes also two animals were named"Jose"and"Apure".So I guess, all animals had official and inofficial names...
 
This is what Wikipedia says about "Halbstarke" :
[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halbstarke]Halbstarke - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
 
Bib Fortuna said:
Thank you both for the information and the two links. Ceatbase lists the male"Vater" as a female...
Click to expand...
in one of the Cetabase links I gave the dolphin is listed as female, in the other Cetabase link as male. In the Sylvestre paper he specifically notes the presence of a penis which I think means the dolphin was a male. :D
 
Bib Fortuna said:
The Annual Report mentioned a names competion for young people to find names for the River dolphins.Because the group looked like a"Family", the"Teenagers" deciced to name them"Oma"(Grandma),"Mutter(Mother),Vater(Father)Halbstarker(Teenager)and"Baby",but the reports writes also two animals were named"Jose"and"Apure".So I guess, all animals had official and inofficial names...
Click to expand...
that makes sense. However I can only find "official" names for three of them (Apure for Vater; presumably Jose for Halbstarker; and Orinoko for Baby). A lot of sites have the albino as being unnamed, so it seems she had no "official" name, only the public one of Oma. I can't find Mutter being called anything except Mutter.
 
In July 1966 Marineland of Florida made an expedition to Iquitos, Peru to collect Amazon freshwater dolphins (Inia geoffrensis). Just as they were the first to maintain a colony of marine dolphins in captivity, they wanted to be the first to maintain a colony of freshwater dolphins in captivity. After six weeks down there, they returned with twelve dolphins but that was too many for the special indoor tank they had constructed for them (the Amazon River Exhibit) so five were traded to their sister oceanarium in California Marineland of the Pacific for two pilot whales and two Pacific whitesided dolphins. The seven remaining dolphins were established in a large indoor tank with underwater viewing but that was still too many because in the wild these dolphins are found singly or in pairs. There was a lot of dominance problems inasmuch as the 9-foot male attacked and killed one of the smaller dolphins the first year the exhibit was opened. In 1968 Marineland obtained a female Sotalia and her male calf for the exhibit but the male Inia pinned the baby to the tank floor and drowned it; its mother died shortly thereafter (probably from a broken heart). A live birth occurred on my birthday, June 15, 1970. The last Inia died in 1976. it was so sad; the water current had pushed it up against the glass viewing windows so you could inspect it closely and it looked like it had little leeches on its body. Marineland simply changed the sign on the outside of the building to Manatee Exhibit since they already had two Floride manatees on display therein.
 
condor said:
At this point I think bringing an endangered dolphin into captivity would be a bad idea. Yes we now know more about husbandry than we did some years ago but I am not aware of any species of dolphin where the breeding rate in captivity match or even approach that in the wild. In other words: They breed faster in the wild than in captivity. Before even considering bringing an endangered species into captivity you have to be reasonably sure it can be kept at levels where the captive populations at least is self-sustaining (birth rate ≥ death rate). How many dolphin species have truly self-sustaining populations in captivity? Not many...
Click to expand...

The issue involving captive breeding of cetaceans depends on the species. Orcas breed in much quicker intervals in captivity, with wait time between calves depending on the female (for Kasatka it's been 10 years on more than one occasion. Katina had an average of about 4 years. But then there are whales like Kalina, Takara, and Taima who were constantly cranking out calves, with Kalina and Taima giving birth almost every two years with the exception of Skyla and Taima's miscarriage, compared to wild intervals of about 5 years. Granted the trend is usually only present in captive-born females, because Takara had a calf about every three years (very reliably) until the ban.

Bottlenose dolphin breeding behavior in the wild is something I'm not quite as familiar with. But I know the breeding interval in captivity is usually about 3 years, but at this point there are so many that aquariums are starting to try and slow them down by separating them or placing them on birth control. Commerson's dolphins in captivity give birth about every two years. Lags every 3. Belugas about every 3 or 4 (except Martha). And if cetacean pregnancies fail, the animals are most fertile just after a birth, allowing for the one year intervals like those of Calla (2004 stillbirth and Calypso in 2005), Nacha (2008 stillbirth and Neelee in 2009), Cascade (2008 calf and Montenegro in 2009), and Beaker (2004 calf and Captain in 2005).
 
Bib Fortuna said:
Which Zoos / aquariums ever hold Amazon River dolphins ? I know, Pittssburgh Zoo, Steinhart aquarium and Kamogawa Seworld, Duisburg and Valencia stil does, but I guess, there were more ? Seaworld maybe, too?

It would be nice t o know all other places this species was kept in the past. Thanks.
Click to expand...
According to Ceta Base, SeaWorld San Diego had a pair named Snooty and Snorkel in the mid to late 60's. It doesn't say when the pair died.

Also, Shedd Aquarium had a pair named Chica and Cosita, Cosita died very quickly but Chico survived for about 20 years if I remember correctly.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top