On television, in the movies, and in shows at theme parks, dolphins appear as intelligent creatures who can communicate with and relate to humans. In particular, the dolphin's slightly upturned mouth appears to be set in an innocent smile. They attract our sympathy and affection. When did people begin to train dolphins? What is the most appropriate way for people to treat dolphins?

It is afternoon on an unusually clear winter's day. In the outdoor pool, surrounded by a semicircular viewing platform, four dolphins and a false killer whale are "at work" at Ocean World in Yehliu, on Taiwan's northern coast. Following the instructions of their trainer, who carries a high-frequency whistle, the animals engage in tail-fin slapping, ring-catching, group singing, and other activities.

The audience is mostly made up of families taking advantage of the winter holiday to see the show. When the program reaches the math segment, everyone watches as a dolphin stares at a blackboard--for all the world like an intent little student--with the problem "6+4=?" written there. Then it turns quickly and swims to the horns facing the crowd, where it begins tooting out the correct number.

"One, two, three...." Some little children, getting worried, even count along to help out. When the number of toots gets to ten, the air of tense expectation dissolves into loud applause. Children, entranced by the "cleverness" of the cetacean, clap until their hands are red. Then the dolphin swims quickly over to the pool edge next to the trainer, where it gets what it obviously loves most--"wages," in the form of fish and strokes from the trainer.

Ancestors

Training of performing dolphins has not been going on for a very long time. Whale researcher Yang Hung-chia says that the "ancestral home" of this activity is probably a research institute affiliated with an oceanarium in Florida, in the US. That facility was established in 1938, and it was there that, in 1947, it was first discovered that dolphins have sonar.

The playful nature and linguistic complexity shown by several species of dolphins intrigued researchers. At the same time, as care and feeding techniques improved, researchers began to explore development of dolphin performances. Training began in Asia only after World War II, at an oceanarium in Japan.

There are 32 species of dolphins in the world, but virtually all performing dolphins are of the bottlenose variety. This is because "they are most amenable to being close to people, and they are very playful," explains the veteran trainer Jackson W.C. Hui, an advisor to Ocean World.

Many people have joyful memories of seeing dolphin performances as children. The first real dolphin star was probably Flipper, a bottlenose who appeared on American television back in the 1960s. He was best friends with a little boy, and helped out whenever people were in trouble, winning the hearts of countless children.

Yet, in this brief period of less than half a century, with the rise of environmental consciousness, many conservation groups have begun to have doubts about performing dolphins.

One school of thought holds that training dolphins to engage in activities that are not natural just to delight an audience is by definition animal abuse. There were incidents in Japan of trainers using corporal punishment--kicking dolphins or depriving them of food for a day or two--to force the dolphins to conform.

The halibut, not the stick

A trainer by profession, Jackson Hui describes the training of captive dolphins as nothing more than "a good day at work" that gives them a chance to be active. Otherwise they would have nothing to do all day, and, like idle people, could become depressed and die prematurely. He also notes that, due to the impact of conservationist thinking, punishment was dropped as a training method 20 years ago.

Current principles for dolphin training begin with earning their trust by spending several days with them. After that, rewards are used to get the dolphins to learn to do actions within their capabilities at specified times. "We use the psychological principle of conditioned behavior," says Hui. In simple terms, they set targets and use hand gestures to guide the dolphins to do certain actions, after which the dolphins are rewarded with food at the sound of the whistle.

If on a given day the dolphins cannot do what is requested, the trainer will not force them to do so. Hui talks about "Ah Chuang," a male dolphin he trains. Ah Chuang has great learning capacity, but is stubborn and egotistical, and often loses patience after having to do the same action two or three times in a row. When this happens, Hui just walks away and gives Ah Chuang the cold shoulder for an hour or two. By the time he returns, Ah Chuang's attitude is always appreciably more mellow.

Ironically, the thing which most readily creates friction between humans and animals is something beneficial to the animals--medical care. Ocean World veterinarian Chen Te-chin says that at first, when they wanted to take a blood sample, they had to bring the dolphin out of the water and have several trainers hold it steady. But the dolphins found this kind of contact to be too strange, and often quite naturally struggled, flipping their tail fins and causing injury.

Also, if approached by a stranger, dolphins will act in "self-defense." Once a high diver from abroad who works at Ocean World thought it would be fun to reach out and play with a female dolphin called Lucky. Startled, the dolphin immediately displayed its sharp teeth, and jumped backwards out of the water. Chen Te-chin, noting that dolphins will not attack humans, says Lucky's "growl" was in fact a sign of fear.

"Lucky" and "Mom"

Look again in the pool, and the "performers" who have just "gotten off work" are playfully chasing each other around the training pool. But Lucky keeps to herself off to one side of the pool, just floating up and down with the water currents. Generally speaking, this is a sign of illness, but Lucky's case is an exception.

Lucky's skin is of a slightly darker color than her colleagues, and her body is somewhat bigger. The white markings on her dorsal fin are scars left from an accidental entanglement in lines years before. The trainer says that in the six years since Lucky joined the park, no one has never seen her engage in mating behavior, and she isn't much for playing with the others. Perhaps this is because she is a Japanese gilli dolphin, making it harder for her to get along with the others, which are southern bottlenose.

Looking at Lucky's melancholy posture, perhaps she is reminiscing about her days of freedom with her own species in the wild.

Because of a lack of experience raising dolphins, many situations are hard to anticipate and forestall. For example, how do you care for a pregnant dolphin?

In the wild, dolphins about to deliver swim rapidly in order to "squeeze" the calf out. This process takes only about 30 to 60 minutes. But when the female dolphin "Mom" first delivered eight or nine years ago, it took two hours. Hui recalls that "Mom" was overfed and underexercised during her 12-month pregnancy, so that the calf grew too large and proved to be a difficult birth, causing the calf to suffocate.

It seems that "Mom" knew that something was amiss, but she still struggled with her head and back to force the corpse to stick its head out of the water to breathe. When staff members approached, Mom immediately assumed an aggressive posture to protect her baby!

Extremely valuable Willy!

In recent years, wild animals raised in captivity have been given more living space and more natural surroundings. Still, says Marcus Phipps of TRAFFIC, there are still some extremist animal rights groups overseas who wish to close all zoos and sea-world theme parks, with the goal of returning the animals to their natural habitats.

Remember the intelligent and courageous killer whale in Free Willy? The movie's star (closely related to the dolphin) was purchased by the filmmakers from a theme park in Mexico that was on the verge of bankruptcy. The success of the film saved the park, but also attracted broad public concern. Since then many people have contributed money to help liberate the real Willy, but the filmmakers know good business when they see it: Although the sequel has been out for a year now, there is still a long way to go before Willy can be free.

Some people have suggested that it is actually better for Willy to stay in captivity. Having been away from the open seas for 15 years, and accustomed to being fed by humans, would he be able to cope with the hard challenges of nature?

Indeed, what should be done with dolphins (who can reach 30 or 40 years old) that outlive their performing careers? Chen Te-chin notes that Taiwan's Ocean World has not yet been faced with this problem, but expects that "We will allow them to live out their natural lives in the pool. We can't release them into the open sea, that would be immoral."

Water wings

Besides providing entertainment, are there any other benefits to be derived from dolphins raised in captivity? For one thing, specialists have discovered that trained dolphins can help improve the quality of life for autistic, learning disabled, or emotionally damaged children.

They may also help in physical therapy. In an article called "Water Wings" in the Fall 1993 Earth Journal, author Beth Livermore reports the following story from a marine mammal facility in Florida that hosts the "differently-abled." A therapist at the facility--which is legally authorized to allow customers to swim with dolphins--treats two children afflicted with cerebral palsy by placing them in the water with three dolphins. The children have impaired muscle control due to injury to the brain. The buoyancy in the water helps the kids exercise, and the dolphins "provide distraction and motivation." The children have made "an awful lot of progress in a short amount of time," concludes their therapist.

Another way captive cetaceans may prove useful is that further study and research into their lives may be very important in sustaining the seas, which are already seriously damaged from human activity.

Chen Te-chin has observed that each time a new cetacean enters Ocean World, the social hierarchy has to be readjusted. Studies indicate that in the open seas dolphin social structure usually consists of a group of females with their young, while males are active alone, outside the group. But at Ocean World, the male dolphins are "kings" of the group (though during mating periods the females could well be "queens").

The leader of the Ocean World dolphins has always been "Big Head," who has the greatest seniority. However, when Ah Chuang arrived he was not satisfied with second place, and was constantly trying to stage a "coup." Today he is covered with "battle scars." In the end the two had to be separated in order to bring an end to the conflict.

Although the king seems to get first dibs on mating, "defeated generals" who stay by his side still have a chance. This is somewhat different from the "monogamous" relationship of dolphins reported in the literature.

During the mating periods (which occur once in Spring and again in Autumn), the female signals the males by raising her tail. Once, this caused the males to be unable to concentrate on the performance, so the female was separated from them. Unexpectedly, when she was released, none of the males showed any interest. A blood test revealed why--she was already pregnant! Chen Te-chin is now looking into the question, "How do females signal males that they are already pregnant?"

Making them happy

Currently virtually all nations forbid the capture of dolphins. After the passage of Taiwan's Wildlife Conservation Law in 1990, Ocean World could no longer purchase dolphins from Penghu, so the facility now faces a problem of where to get new dolphins. Also, the planned National Aquarium is finding it impossible to acquire specimens for display or research.

In the short term, Ocean World is allowing its dolphins to reproduce naturally to keep the group going. But this raises the problem of mating with close family members, creating the risk of diseases from too narrow a gene pool. Chen Te-chin thus has been doing genetic tests on each cetacean in order to clarify their exact relationships.

One solution to the problem of where to find new blood might be swapping with other marine mammal facilities. But this would raise complex problems of interactions among creatures of different species and habits, so right now the prospects are not so great.

How should people treat dolphins already raised and trained in captivity?

From a veterinary point of view, says Chen Te-chin, taking care of dolphins is a lifetime proposition. Chen previously worked at a cattle ranch for seven years. He says that the biggest difference is people's attitudes towards the animals. Hogs and cattle are seen as economic beasts, and if they die they are culled from the group. But dolphins are treated more like people. They are watched constantly, given immunization periodically, fed vitamin supplements, and so on. Everything possible is done to look after them.

These days, the target is to "make them happy." Thought is being given to how to make changes in their current environment--such as different toys or obstacles in the water--to spark their curiosity about their environment. For Chen, the greatest reward comes each time he sees a dolphin leap happily out of the water and, perfectly relaxed, "cannonball" back down in a splash of water.

Educational functions

Chou Lien-siang, a professor of zoology at National Taiwan University, says that for feeding or medical purposes it is necessary to train dolphins in some simple maneuvers--for example, always eating in one specific place, or rolling over to have their temperature taken. But the emphasis in raising dolphins should not be on tricks, but on educational functions. People should be informed about dolphins' behavior, and learn their many attractive points, so that people will go further to protect them.

In Florida's Sea World, they use humor to educate people about dolphin behavior and ecology. They also have closed-circuit big screen TV to get people close to the animals, and they also get the audience involved.

For example, they do a bit when they introduce the killer whale in which the audience is asked, "What percentage of its body weight does the killer whale eat every day?" Suddenly on the video screen appears the picture of the head of an audience member superimposed on the open mouth of a killer whale, so it looks like the person is about to become whale-lunch. Amidst general laughter, the emcee declares, "Fortunately, killer whales don't eat human beings."

Chou Lien-siang, who has been to Sea World, says that the audience is drawn in by a sense of participation, so that they are educated as well as entertained. If only amusing tricks are displayed, such as simple math or backflips, which are not natural for the dolphins, then people might get the wrong signals.

Should the dolphins be allowed to go home? Should wild animals be trained? What is the ideal relationship between man and animals? These questions begin to involve philosophical issues. People may never know how animals really feel, and all training requires animals to adapt to people's demands. The attitude we take toward them will display our own level of civilization.

Dolphin acts bring lots of happiness to people, but conservationists have begun to wonder whether the dolphins' rights are being infringed.

Dolphin trainers use the principle of "conditioned response"--awarding fish for doing what is required. Today only rewards, not punishments, are used.