Hello Everyone!
Wow! What a full week it has been. We started the week off by being approved to water the dolphins and it definitely moved quickly from there! Watering the dolphins is when they are given drinking water for extra hydration. Dolphins do need fresh water but they normally receive their hydration through the fish that they eat. You will sometimes see facilities helping them by supplementing them with extra water, especially here as the water they live in has been warm at about 85 degrees. This week also marked the first time that we were allowed to get in the water with the dolphins! Each individual dolphin is approved at different times to be part of educational programs, us students were able to pose as participants to help Atocha enhance her program behaviors – such as saying hello, back rubs and in-water handshakes. We were also able to do this with some of the older males – Tanner, Flagler and Rainbow. Continuing with big happenings, on Friday we were expecting to do a feed from the dock but were then told we would have our own play/ feeding time in the water. I was able to play with Jax which was very enjoyable. He liked playing with dive rings, rubber balls and having splash fights. Then to finish off the week (which already had a lot of firsts) I had my chance to have a session with TWO dolphins. I was able to finish off the week working with Cacica and Atocha. They both enjoy games of moving from dock to dock. One thing I didn’t realize about working with dolphins is how quickly you become covered in fish scales!
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