Assessment of Welfare of Marine Mammal Species in Zoological Parks

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The C-Well® assessment as a dolphin welfare
framework, and conducting research to find objective
measures of welfare
ISABELLA L. K. CLEGG
PhD Student/Animal Behaviourist at Parc Astérix
Firstly, the C-Well® assessment will be presented: this is a framework
of 36 welfare measures specific to bottlenose dolphins, established
in-situ using extensive literature reviews, veterinary and professional
expertise, and practical application with tests for accuracy. The
assessment is comprehensive, functional, and constitutes both
animal and resource-based measures in line with the farm animal
assessment it was adapted from (WelfareQuality®). The C-Well ®
assessment is applied to individual dolphins, thus facilitating
comparisons between the different welfare criteria as well as
among age classes, sex, groups and facilities, allowing identification
of best practices and benchmarks as well as guiding legislation.
In the second part of the presentation, the importance of
conducting research into dolphin welfare is discussed. The
literature demonstrates that measures are validated through
correlations of behavioural, physiological and cognitive measures,
and the presenter’s PhD project aims to use multi-disciplinary
techniques to establish measures within these three categories.
Results from the most promising indicators thus far are presented,
including synchronous swimming, anticipatory behaviour, and
cognitive bias, although long-term data from the full duration
of the project are needed before final conclusions can be made.
Finally, suggestions are outlined for advancing dolphin welfare
assessment using these experiences. The C-Well® measures are
practical, standardised, and accurate, as well as adaptable to other
species, but further work on validation is needed. The PhD research
on dolphin welfare shows that long-term data facilitates validation
of measures, using repetitions of contexts where measures can
be correlated. Lessons from farm animal assessments, multi-
disciplinary collaborations, and the advantages from both projects
described above, will aid future efforts to progress towards
establishing welfare indicators for dolphins and other marine
mammals.
Full Presentation page 66-71
Isabella L. K. Clegg
PhD Student/Animal Behaviourist at Parc Astérix
Université Paris 13 Nord
99, av. Jean-Baptiste Clément
93430 Villetaneuse, France
Email:
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