Special Issue Survey of Cetaceans in Captive Care

8. Husbandry 375reintroducing a new animal only after the otheranimals are established, or introducing new animalsinto an established group as a pair or a group(Geraci, 1986). If the decision is made to removethe animal permanently, proper housing will beprovided. This animal should not be deprived ofthe company of other animals, however.Cetaceans should be allowed to rest betweenperformances. They can be rotated to ensure thatthey rest adequately and perform readily. The regulationsof different countries may vary greatly onthis issue. An animal that suffers from a disease ordoes not behave adequately will not participate inperformances or swim programmes until its conditionis remedied. This includes animals that arereluctant to perform.BreedingNowadays, every institution should consider promotingbreeding to maintain a stable, global captivepopulation. Laws and regulations in mostcountries forbid the collection of wild animalsand favour captive breeding programmes. Speciesin danger of extinction are of particular concern.Yet, many populations are kept in small groups orsame-sex groups, therefore, excluding these animalsfrom contributing to the collective captivegene pool (Odell & Robeck, 2002). An efficientanimal management programme is encouraged toachieve long-term population stability.Nevertheless, breeding will be considered onlyif the welfare of newborn animals is ensured by anadequate environment. Maintenance of pregnantfemales and females with a calf requires facilitiesto have adequate spatial requirements with whichto isolate animals. Breeding will be supervisedby a veterinarian with expert knowledge in reproduction.Reproductive strategies and physiologycan vary significantly among cetacean species(Robeck et al., 2001). The reproductive status ofmales and females can be monitored by hormonalstatus and/or by ultrasonography and regularcheck-ups performed during pregnancy and therearing of the calf. The genetic origin of newbornanimals has to be identified to control the diversityof the captive population. Precious informationon reproductive physiology and anatomy canbe obtained from routine veterinary examinations.Mating patterns and sexual and rearing behaviourscan be recorded to enhance the understanding ofthe reproduction of the species.Whenever possible, the veterinarian and trainingstaff will be present during birthing to gainexperience in parturition and post-natal care,to record the event and monitor the timing andphysiological parameters of the mother and calf,and to provide assistance and support in case of aproblem. Contingency plans should be developedby the veterinarian when pregnancy is detectedin case of emergency situations. Adequate safeguardswill be implemented to maximise the survivalof offspring, including prevention action toensure that the young are not subject to injury byother individuals in cases such as improper rearingby the mother or if the newborn is weak ordoes not nurse well. If hand-rearing is chosen formedical reasons, adequate facilities will be usedto provide easy access to the young animal, andit will be kept in the company of its mother or asurrogate female. During the past decades, somefacilities have faced the difficulties of breedingand the resulting loss of a calf. By communicationand information sharing, improvements havebeen made in pregnancy detection and management,in environmental enhancements for birthingand neo-natal care, and in post-natal care and calfhusbandry.Inbreeding is one of the problems of captivegroups (Klinowska & Brown, 1986). This is notacceptable in view of available techniques forpopulation management such as segregation, contraception,artificial insemination, and possiblerelocation. The veterinarian can assist an institutionin creating a plan for population managementand breeding control. The role of the EuropeanEndangered species Programme (EEP), EuropeanStudbook (ESB), or a Species Survival Plan (SSP)is to help institutions in the management of captivepopulations to maintain genetic diversity.Please refer to, among others, Robeck (2001) andOdell & Robeck (2002) for information on reproductionand artificial insemination and to Townsend& Gage (2001) for information on hand-rearing of acalf. Reproduction is one of the fast evolving topicsin the care and maintenance of marine mammals.Artificial insemination has seen many positiveresults during the past few years. Many articles havebeen published in various marine mammal science,veterinary, or medicine journals. Workshops andsymposia by the European Association for AquaticMammals (EAAM), the International Associationfor Aquatic Animal Medicine (IAAAM), theInternational Marine Animal Trainers Association(IMATA), the Society for Marine Mammalogy(SMM), and other professional organisationsrecently have been organised on these subjects.These organisations have website links that discussartificial insemination (Anonymous, 2005e,2005h, 2005i, 2005k). Two chapters of the CRCHandbook by Dierauf (2001) and Dierauf et al.(2001) provide extensive online references andlinks to marine mammal websites. Two journals arededicated to marine mammal sciences: (1) AquaticMammals, published by the EAAM, and (2) MarineMammal Science, published by the SMM. Both areaccessible online (see the Aquatic Mammals and