Swimmin' with Dolphs!

So when people find out that I work with dolphins at the aquarium, inevitably, their first question is always, "Do you get to swim with them!?" And for the first almost year I worked here, I would always answer yes, even though I barely ever got to get in the water with them.  But lately, work has been awesome and I have been learning a lot and getting to do so much more water work!!!  I mentioned in an earlier post that when I got promoted, one of my new goals was to work on water work with one of our dolphins named Lily!  My supervisor told me to work on her water work like 3 times a week (to which I obviously replied, heck ya! don't have to tell me to get in the water twice! haha) so I have been getting in the water with her a lot more!  I started out just doing some mimics, which are basically when the dolphins do the same thing you do, but I have also gotten to do her dorsal tow, inverted tow (where they are upside down and you hold onto their pecs as they swim) and her pec push (which is when you put your feet on their pecs and they push you backwards)!  It has been so exciting for me to actually get in the water with her, work on my relationship with her and as some people would say "ride a dolphin!" hahaha :)

This is me practicing a behavior called a "Layback" with Lily!

In addition to Lily's waterwork, I've also just started learning my first show waterwork part!!! It's going to be quite a while before I actually get to do it in show, since I don't even have it as an official goal yet and since there are 2 girls ahead of me on learning this part, but it's still super exciting.  Most of the girls at work start out by learning this segment called the Ballad, which is mostly low-energy water work like pec pushes and mimics that only girls do, and this past week I got to get in the show pool and start working with one of our dolphins named Pukanala on her ballad! Nothing too fancy, but still very exciting for me!!! I shall keep you posted on updates! :)

In other work related news, I had my first time holding a dolphin for a fecal sample collection!  I know it sounds gross (eww dolphin poop!) but it was actually pretty cool for me!  Next I will get to hold a dolphin for a blood sample collection!  For those of you who are unfamiliar with dolphin husbandry, all our dolphins (and most marine mammals and other animals at facilities) are trained on voluntary husbandry behaviors.  What that means is that they are trained to allow us to collect most medical samples (blood, urine, fecal, stomach, blowhole, etc) we need.  Another new goal/area I have been assigned to be in charge of is Environmental Enrichment Devices (EEDs), otherwise known as toys!!! It is now my responsibility to make sure that all of our toys are accounted for, remain safe for the animals' use, and are in good condition.  It might not sound that important, but it is actually a big deal because anything that enters the dolphins' environment has to be safe for them to play with.  What might a dolphin like to play with, you might ask?  Well some of the toys in our collection include basketballs, footballs, hula hoops, buoys, rings and even a traffic cone (lol)!  Also, most of our dolphins seem to enjoy bubbles!!! :)  Here's a super cute video one of the other trainers took for the Aquarium website!



Well I know that was a lot of words and not a lot of pictures, so thanks for reading all my work updates!!!! :)