With apologies to Jan Broekema, I have to make the following crucial point to the entire list as others may face a similiar problem at some point in the future.
I would hope nobody would seriously contemplate releasing a dolphin from one population into a different population. Your captive dolphin may come from a population where individuals have evolved resistance to a particular pathogen that is not present in the population of dolphins where you plan to release the individual. The consequences of such a release could be disastrous. An eminently readable account of what could happen in such situations is found in Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs & Steel". Richard Connor > <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> > <html> > <head> > </head> > <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> > We are looking for advice on the release of captive dolphins in the > wild. If you have actual experience we would very much like to get into > contact with you, on short notice.<br> > <br> > 'We' in this case is a group of people who are involved in presenting > solutions to government regarding the possible release of previously > captured wild dolphins (Tursiops trancatus). We are seeking answer as > to:<br> > <ul> > <li>is this proper procedure for dolphins that have been in captivity > for several months</li> > <li>what are the risks involved for the animals; could this action > cause more harm</li> > <li>would you consider release in another area with less risk of > recapture a risk or an advantage</li> > <li>should re-introduction into the wild be helped or hindered by > seeking out a local population</li> > </ul> > If you have a sound (scientific) basis for comments, please reply to me > (and not the mailing list please).<br> > <br> > Will you be so kind to state your professional role in such releases? > (Examples: zoo vet, biologist or cetologist, student volunteer, > government official, skipper ...)<br> > <br> > May we contact you for further assistance?<br> > <br> > Jan Willem Broekema<br> > <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" > href="mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]">[EMAIL PROTECTED]</a><br> > member of board of Dolphin Fund (Europe)<br> > <br> > <pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">-- > > "Don't fall in love with some nice looking marine biologist" - Sandra > Bullock as Lucy Kelson in Two Weeks Notice (2002) > </pre> > </body> > </html> > _______________________________________________ > MARMAM mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/marmam > _______________________________________________ MARMAM mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uvic.ca/mailman/listinfo/marmam
