As you know, the next phase of our development will be the completion and opening of Marine Life Park featuring six exhilarating water slides, a wave pool, a 620 m Adventure River and Reef Swim. Also included will be our dolphin encounter. Our programs will give guests the opportunity to experience firsthand these majestic animals and learn about their natural behaviors and biological aspects. Dolphins naturally love to interact with humans, and with this opportunity to have an up-close and personal experience, you will come away from Marine Life Park with a far greater appreciation of the marine environment.
The team at Marine Life Park strongly believes that well-run marine facilities make a tangible difference to animal conservation. Marine mammals in public zoological facilities offer an excellent opportunity to share important conservation messages with visitors. What we learn from animals in a park environment coupled with field research is fundamental to improving our understanding of marine mammals and their conservation. In the United States each year over 150 million guests visit aquaria and zoo facilities. Here in Singapore, over 4 million people visit our zoos and aquarium, regarded as among the best in the world.
Reports and testimonials have shown that zoos and marine parks have inspired personalities to illustrious careers in the care of animals. Indeed many of our animal care teammates and veterinarians were inspired to pursue their professions following their early experiences in zoos, marine parks and aquariums as children. Learning about animal behavior, their care and their needs from their caregivers first hand is unbeatable in fostering awareness and advancing the protection of the species.
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Most dolphins eat only fish, although some also eat small numbers of squid, crab, small rays and sharks.
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| Feeding time for Wawa at MLP facility in Subic. |
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Indo Pacific bottlenose dolphins (the species at MLP) eat many types of food, depending upon where they live.
Globally the success of dolphin breeding programs within these complexes is an important measure of successful husbandry of dolphins in human care. Today the achieve¬ment of these breeding programs provides valuable insight and knowledge into the propagation of dolphins and other marine mammal species.
In our aim to establish the Marine Life Park as one of the world’s finest, we have evaluated how marine parks around the world can contribute to the conservation cause. Collectively, marine parks provide an important source of not just funding, but expertise in marine mammal science, and as a result these facilities regularly exchange knowledge and expertise on education, animal care and research programs. Marine Life Park will continue this tradition in its collaboration with both local and international facilities and research centers.
A lot of what we know about dolphins and marine mammal health care, physical make up, reproductive biology and intelligence has been learned through scientific studies in zoological parks and aquariums over the last 40 years. This sort of research is not possible in the wild.
(From left, laboratory at the MLP facility in Subic) Dr Christopher Torno working on record keeping of laboratory results and Dr. Alfonso Lopez doing a Cytology analysis.
The Marine Life Park has already opened its laboratory and developed the required veterinary and husbandry procedures and protocols required to house and maintain marine mammals. In addition, we are pursuing the launch of new conservation and research initiatives. Our long term goal is to put in place a structured and sustained program to advance marine mammal science, conservation and education.
The Marine Life Park has been designed and is being built to exceed international standards for animal care and welfare. We are actively working towards receiving international accreditation in those areas.
Our Marine Life Park team currently stands at 28. We are as eager and passionate about the animals as many of you. We may have differing views on getting there, but we share the same goal on conserving bottlenose dolphins. Our team is designing educational and conservation programs, and we are looking forward to sharing details of these with you in the coming months. To find out more about our funding and conservation efforts on coral relocation and the conservation efforts in the Galapagos Island, click HERE.
Thank You.
Marine Life Park Team
Reproduced with help from the AMMPA Standardized Information. For additional information please refer to the following books:
1. Reynolds III, J.E., R.S. Wells, S.D. Eide. 2000. The Bottlenose Dolphin: Biology and Conservation. University Press of Florida. Gainesville, FL.
2. Leatherwood, S. and Reeves, R.R., eds. 1990. The Bottlenose Dolphin. New York: Academic Press.
3. Perrin, W.F., B. Würsig, J.G.M. Thewissen, eds. 2009. The Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, Second Edition. Academic Press. San Diego, CA.
4. Reynolds, J.E., III, and R.S. Wells. 2003. Dolphins, Whales, and Manatees of Florida: A Guide to Sharing Their World. University Press of Florida.
5. Society for Marine Mammalogy species accounts (www.marinemammalscience.org)
a. Tursiops truncatus
b. Tursiops aduncus
1. Berta, A. and J.L. Sumich. (eds.). 1999. Marine Mammals, Evolutionary Biology. Academic Press. San Diego, CA. 560p.
2. Evans, P.G.H and J. A. Raga (eds.). Marine Mammals: Biology and Conservation. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York 630p
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Marine Life Park FAQs [Updated on 25th August 2011]
Read more about Marine Life Park's Frequently Asked Questions.
Head on over to our BLOG to read about Marine Life Park's latest updates and developments.
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