I'm just so impressed by the amount of behavioural diversity that we're seeing from the Chimelong orcas during wave pool enrichment! We're getting surfing, breaching, porpoising and innovation with using the slide outs in tandem with the waves eg. sliding out and waiting for the wave to knock them back off.
Because you can turn the waves on and off, they remain a dynamic and enriching part of the habitat, rather than something that they become desensitised to. And they can also rest and relax when the wave pool is turned off, so they're not constantly getting pummelled by white water.
It seems to be really encouraging a lot of fast swims, breaches and general high energy behaviour too, which is great for exercise.
It's also amazing to see orca calves getting to play together and to see the formation of a nursery group of mothers and their calves, with the mothers playing, teaching and supervising and the calves playing with each other.
The slide outs seem to be very popular with the calves - showing a similar behaviour we see in Kamagowa where they use the slide outs in a "king of the castle" kind of way (which is interestingly a play style anecdotally observed in other social species).
And before people get on me about this, yes I know that Chimelong orcas were wild captured. While it's unfortunate that they were, it is good that we're seeing multiple indicators of positive welfare: social play, social cohesion, healthy nursery groupings, behavioural diversity and innovative use of the environment.
It would be amazing if more facilities took on similar approach to enrichment. I would love to see more research done with the Chimelong orcas on behaviour diversity and play and how it compares to other facilities without the wave pool.
