Sea Lion Shows?

[John Dineley]

Woburn recently got rid of their Sea lion exhibit, which included a show.

I had heard that Woburn still has the sea lions and were planning now to keep them and up grade the exhibit.

Current sea lion (including fur seals) training displays which include talks such as Dudley Zoo because the animals have been trained to co-operate during the feeding and have undergone some for of formal training.

• Whipsnade Zoo
• Chessington Zoo
• Combe Martin
• Welsh Mountain Zoo
• Colchester Zoo
• Dudley Zoo
• Rhyl Seaquarium
• Knowsley Safari Park
• West Midlands Safari Park
• Pleasurewood Hills Theme Park - Lowersoft
• Pleasure Island Theme Park - Cleethorpes
• Flamingoland - Malton
• Blair Drummond Safari Park
• Blackpool Zoo

As an interesting note seals a have also been trained for shows. In particular Skegness Natureland Seal Sanctuary (formerly Marine Zoo) still presents a few behaviours with their resident groups of animals.

And Blue Reef Aquarium has a trained seal demonstration at their Tynemouth Aquarium:

 

[zoogiraffe]

I like the ones in places in america like SeaWorld, Johnny!

And ZooGiraffe, Chester Zoo will be making a dome which will hold animals like Gorillas and such, and people say Sea Lions are going in there. Who knows! It will be good to see a show though..-huff-

I suggest you re-read the threads about Heart of Africa and you will see no mention of Sea Lions,and there NEVER HAS BEEN for it,also if you read and listen you will be aware that Heart of Africa is on hold for the time being,and not likely to be started for quiet sometime!!!!

 

[Maguari]

I find Sea Lions really interesting and funny!

See, there's the issue for me, the 'funny'.

The problem I have with sea lion shows (and, for that matter, parrot shows) is that zoos almost always treat them as comedy exercises. I'm quite happy to watch an animal show demonstrating the animals' natural abilities, and to have the odd gag thrown in for entertainment's sake, but sea lion shows almost invariably turn into a 20-minute live action Pink Panther cartoon that just leaves me irritated. SeaWorld's had a genuine storyline involving pirates. Really??

Doesn't happen with dolphins or birds of prey. Does with sea lions and parrots. It's odd, but it's the way it is.

 

[John Dineley]

See, there's the issue for me, the 'funny'.
Doesn't happen with dolphins or birds of prey. Does with sea lions and parrots. It's odd, but it's the way it is.

I sympathise with your comment and I do sometime cringe when I see sea lion pantomimes in some aquaria. But as far the animals knows - from an animal welfare point of view - their is no difference in the training involved.

You can have very informative and entertaining demonstrations with sea lions which can impart huge amount of good biological and environmental information it just need intelligent scripting.

Even the act of balancing objects can be used to good effect as it demonstrate these animals have incredibly good coordination involving not only their vision but the others senses - they use their whiskers to aid them balance. This is obviously very helpful when you are trying to catch fish. The fact that these animals can be taught stand and even walk on their front flippers can shows just how powerful these parts of the body are, it's their main propulsion unlike a seal.

When I worked as lecture we used the term edu-tainment as this is in many ways how people recall interesting facts so one has to be careful not to be to dry. People in many cases go to the zoo as a day out and if they enjoyed seeing animals like sea lions 'perform' and research suggests they are more likely to wish to see such animals conserved. We sometimes can be a bit elitist when we talk about education in zoos forgetting that many people who go actually know very little about wildlife. There has and continues a debate among zoo educators as to what is the best way to educate the public be it in public talks and demonstrations or even on signage.

And actually sea lions are funny and engaging in the nicest possible way

 

[Maguari]

I sympathise with your comment and I do sometime cringe when I see sea lion pantomimes in some aquaria. But as far the animals knows - from an animal welfare point of view - their is no difference in the training involved.

Oh, absolutely. It's only that I don't particularly enjoy watching that type of show/demonstration.

You can have very informative and entertaining demonstrations with sea lions which can impart huge amount of good biological and environmental information it just need intelligent scripting.

Even the act of balancing objects can be used to good effect as it demonstrate these animals have incredibly good coordination involving not only their vision but the others senses - they use their whiskers to aid them balance. This is obviously very helpful when you are trying to catch fish. The fact that these animals can be taught stand and even walk on their front flippers can shows just how powerful these parts of the body are, it's their main propulsion unlike a seal.

I would absolutely agree with this too. I just feel that most places with sea lion 'shows' don't do this, and are happy to spend half the show playing peekaboo games for laughs. All very well and good but of no interest to me personally.

I do remember the show at ZooMarine Albufeira, which I saw back in 2002, included a guest appearance from a Grey Seal so they could do a run-through of the seal vs sea lion differences, which I liked.

 

[Kwambeze]

I sympathise with your comment and I do sometime cringe when I see sea lion pantomimes in some aquaria. But as far the animals knows - from an animal welfare point of view - their is no difference in the training involved.

You can have very informative and entertaining demonstrations with sea lions which can impart huge amount of good biological and environmental information it just need intelligent scripting.

Even the act of balancing objects can be used to good effect as it demonstrate these animals have incredibly good coordination involving not only their vision but the others senses - they use their whiskers to aid them balance. This is obviously very helpful when you are trying to catch fish. The fact that these animals can be taught stand and even walk on their front flippers can shows just how powerful these parts of the body are, it's their main propulsion unlike a seal.

When I worked as lecture we used the term edu-tainment as this is in many ways how people recall interesting facts so one has to be careful not to be to dry. People in many cases go to the zoo as a day out and if they enjoyed seeing animals like sea lions 'perform' and research suggests they are more likely to wish to see such animals conserved. We sometimes can be a bit elitist when we talk about education in zoos forgetting that many people who go actually know very little about wildlife. There has and continues a debate among zoo educators as to what is the best way to educate the public be it in public talks and demonstrations or even on signage.

And actually sea lions are funny and engaging in the nicest possible way

I totally agree with you!

 

[John Dineley]

I do remember the show at ZooMarine Albufeira, which I saw back in 2002, included a guest appearance from a Grey Seal so they could do a run-through of the seal vs sea lion differences, which I liked.

Actually a mix pinnipeds show would be very interesting. Grey seals seem to get on fine California sea lions and common seal too. Interesting concept.

 

[Kwambeze]

I do remember the show at ZooMarine Albufeira, which I saw back in 2002, included a guest appearance from a Grey Seal so they could do a run-through of the seal vs sea lion differences, which I liked.

They are doing the same at Kolmården Wildlife Park, but they have gray seals and harbour seals "vs" fur seals. They show differents as furseals can run fast, but the gray and harbour seal ar clumsy on land and more.

Very informative and fun to watch!

 

[sealion]

I had heard that Woburn still has the sea lions and were planning now to keep them and up grade the exhibit.

Ah, interesting. Thanks for the update!

EDIT: also, went to Knowsley the other day and their show was very much based around demonstrating the natural abilities of the Sea lion-albeit it was a reduced show with just one Sea Lion. (Not that I object to the more comical-style shows....they particularly catch the imagination of younger visitors and engage the modern "entertainment-demanding" public!) Sea Lion shows sometimes resemble more of a dog show than a dolphin shows in the comical/energetic sense. (Particularly in the UK maybe due to the absence of the cetacean training influence.)

 

[karoocheetah]

Interesting thread this now - I'm a bit divided opinion wise like most from what I read - on one hand I'm really keen to see any animal being dynamic and interacting in some way so a 'show' that demonstrates training methods or the natural behaviour of the animal in the wild always makes me feel much better than a 'show' that's purely there for entertainment and doesn't really benefit the animal - the hard part is distinguishing between these as for a long time I considered Knowsley's show to be more along the 'lets bring the punters in and show them how cute and funny the sealions are by making them do trick' BUT I finally decided to watch it this year (fighting my way through the forest of buggies to get a seat) and it definately was themed to show how the animal uses it's adaptions in the wild for feeding, locomotion and swimming etc, with the added bonus that they are extremely entertaining and engaging animals too.
So I suppose we all have a judgement call to make when an attraction or zoo offers something along these lines?

 

[Saro]

I sympathise with your comment and I do sometime cringe when I see sea lion pantomimes in some aquaria. But as far the animals knows - from an animal welfare point of view - their is no difference in the training involved.

You can have very informative and entertaining demonstrations with sea lions which can impart huge amount of good biological and environmental information it just need intelligent scripting.

Even the act of balancing objects can be used to good effect as it demonstrate these animals have incredibly good coordination involving not only their vision but the others senses - they use their whiskers to aid them balance. This is obviously very helpful when you are trying to catch fish. The fact that these animals can be taught stand and even walk on their front flippers can shows just how powerful these parts of the body are, it's their main propulsion unlike a seal.

When I worked as lecture we used the term edu-tainment as this is in many ways how people recall interesting facts so one has to be careful not to be to dry. People in many cases go to the zoo as a day out and if they enjoyed seeing animals like sea lions 'perform' and research suggests they are more likely to wish to see such animals conserved. We sometimes can be a bit elitist when we talk about education in zoos forgetting that many people who go actually know very little about wildlife. There has and continues a debate among zoo educators as to what is the best way to educate the public be it in public talks and demonstrations or even on signage.

And actually sea lions are funny and engaging in the nicest possible way

I very much agree with your comments, John ! I hate when pinnipeds (or any other animal) are degraded to be/act like clowns. This is not what any zoo or aquarium should do.
Having done some Youtube research, I particularly like the pinniped demonstration at the Taronga zoo's southern oceans stage. They really do a great job!
Demonstrations/shows with different species of pinnipeds are not that uncommon (in Germany at Dortmund and Hannover). Nürnberg has California sea lions and dolphins interacting.

Pinniped demonstrations can be a unique way to get the general public interested in these animals and to teach about the threats to the oceans in general. A clown show is a wasted opportunity!

 

[sealion]

Interesting thread this now - I'm a bit divided opinion wise like most from what I read - on one hand I'm really keen to see any animal being dynamic and interacting in some way so a 'show' that demonstrates training methods or the natural behaviour of the animal in the wild always makes me feel much better than a 'show' that's purely there for entertainment and doesn't really benefit the animal - the hard part is distinguishing between these as for a long time I considered Knowsley's show to be more along the 'lets bring the punters in and show them how cute and funny the sealions are by making them do trick' BUT I finally decided to watch it this year (fighting my way through the forest of buggies to get a seat) and it definately was themed to show how the animal uses it's adaptions in the wild for feeding, locomotion and swimming etc, with the added bonus that they are extremely entertaining and engaging animals too.
So I suppose we all have a judgement call to make when an attraction or zoo offers something along these lines?

Yeah, I think most zoos and aquaria have moved a bit more towards showing more naturalistic behaviours. The day I went was a school day so there were less children, so that may affect the type/length of show they perform, having said that you seem to have observed a similar show on a busy day so it looks like they have altered it a bit. Interesting topic.