Testing use of a potential cognitive enrichment device by an Indo‐Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus)

Abstract

Cognitive enrichment aims to provide animals with opportunities to use their cognitive skills and to promote behaviors associated with positive wellbeing. Cooperation in mammals has been recorded during various behavioral contexts such as hunting, mating, playing, and parental care. Coordinated activity, often with some level of problem-solving action included, is required during cooperation. To investigate dolphins' ability for collaborative problem-solving, an enrichment device was introduced to two adult male Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus). The device contained fish and ice and was designed to be opened by simultaneously pulling on both ends. After repeated presentation, it became apparent that only one dolphin had active interest in the device. To facilitate opportunities for problem-solving by this individual, an alternative collaborator, a human partner, was provided. Still, both dolphins had access to the device throughout the entire experiment. After the first opening, the same dolphin was highly successful in collaborating with the human in both joined (93%) and delayed (100%) partner conditions. The device provided a novel opportunity for the dolphin to use his cognitive skills. Even though only one dolphin participated actively, both dolphins showed varying degrees of interest to the device throughout the study. Both dolphins spent an average of 48% and 16% of their time, respectively, with the device, which resulted in a significant decrease in their other two most frequently observed behaviors: swimming and poolside observation. As a novel cognitive challenge, the device may be considered as a type of cognitive enrichment. K E Y W O R D Sanimal welfare, cognitive challenge, dolphin, problem-solving

Assessment of animal management and habitat characteristics associated with social behavior in bottlenose dolphins across zoological facilities

“…Similarly, engaging in a problem-solving task as a form of environmental enrichment increased social behavior for a group of bottlenose dolphins at another facility, but the animals also received a food reward as part of the puzzle [ 34 ]. However, another study which utilized a collaborative cognitive challenge with bottlenose dolphins found no impact on social behavior [ 62 ]. With the recommendation to find new ways of providing new forms of enrichment on a continuous basis, cognitive enrichment may be one way to facilitate being creative with an enrichment program.…”

Minding the Minds: A Primer on Cognitive Challenge for Marine Mammals in Human Care

“…In scientific studies, the term cognitive enrichment has been used to refer to a variety of tasks and situations, depending on species and context, including the following: formal education and/or job complexity (in humans) [83]; a puzzle apparatus that animals figure out how to manipulate to release a toy or food [84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91]; positive reinforcement training mediated by humans (e.g., "clicker training") [92,93]; automated positive reinforcement training (e.g., an automatic feeding station at which an animal is reinforced for performing a specific task) [63,[94][95][96]; interactive computer or touchscreen tasks (e.g., searching for and touching a virtual target; navigating a virtual maze); and cognitive research or other tasks involving learning and/or problem solving (e.g., [37,91,97,98]).…”

“…To characterize and better standardize the meaning, Clark [99] proposed to define cognitive enrichment as "a task (or tasks) whose use (1) engages evolved cognitive skills by providing opportunities to solve problems and control some aspect of the environment, and ( 2) is correlated to one or more validated measures of wellbeing". This definition is useful for providing a broad scientific framework, and has been utilized in multiple studies researching the welfare effects of cognitive enrichment (e.g., [72,84,[86][87][88][89][90]97]). However, for the practical purposes of figuring out and providing cognitive care, there are two issues for which additional clarification and discussion may be useful.…”

Behavioural Diversity Study in Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) Groups and Its Implications for Welfare Assessments

“…Nutritional enrichment elicited more agonistic behavioural diversity than cognitive enrichment. Food involved in the first type of enrichment might have generated some competition, while cognitive enrichment for dolphins often consists in cooperative tasks or promotes solitary events [69,70]. Fast swimming also increased in presence of enrichment [41].…”