Abstract
Harbor seals and California sea lions are two species in different families of the Pinnipedia suborder. They are commonly housed pinnipeds in managed care facilities across the United States, such as the Georgia Aquarium. In these facilities, operant conditioning methods in conjunction with primary and secondary reinforcers are used for training purposes. In addition to training sessions, enrichment sessions are used by managed care facilities to elicit a natural behavioral response from these organisms which increases physical activity, provides mental stimulation, encourages species-appropriate behavior, and promotes positive social interaction between collection animals. Enrichment devices for pinnipeds fall in a vast range, from items such as basketballs to human interaction sessions and scents. This project investigated whether the two species have significantly different utilization of enrichment devices by determining each animals' first interacted device, what behaviors pinnipeds exhibited with each device, and the percent time each species spent interacting with each device. This was be tested by placing each pinniped, one at a time, in a pool where 5 equidistant enrichment devices (" Knothose, " " Aussie Dog, " " Small Boomer, " " Floating Kelp, " and " Medium Bobbin ") were placed in the water for a 5 minute trial period over 20 days with one trial per day for all animals. Statisitical analysis showed the first chosen item for each species was different; Kelp was chosen first 17/21 times for harbor seals and the Small Boomer was selected 10/23 times for the California sea lions. Hiding behaviors were strongly correlated with the Kelp device and every item was moved by the pinnipeds. The majority of time during trials (93% for harbor seal and 98% for California sea lions) was not spent interacting with enrichment. For harbor seals, 6% of this time was spent with the Kelp device, while the California sea lions had a more diversified time profile in their device interaction time (averaged at 2% per trial). When harbor seal device data was compared, they spent the highest percentage of interaction time with the Kelp. In the times not interacting with enrichment, for both seals and sea lions the most expressed behavior was resting at the gate; this behavior was also significantly higher in harbor seals than California sea lions. The harbor seals spent nearly 38% time on average resting at the front gate while the California sea lions averaged 18%. California sea lions had a more narrow range in differences between time spent with the 13 analyzed behaviors than the harbor seals; they spent more time displaying different behaviors than the seals which primarily were resting on the front or side gate. While both expressing exploratory behavior, behaviors such as vocalizations and locomotion as well as more high energy behaviors were more present in California sea lions. Exploratory behaviors, the potential for human interaction, potential for mental stimulation, potential for primary reinforcement with the changing environment outside their habitat was more reinforcing than the toys presented in that specific time of day, however the toys were still reinforcing. The results of this study could be utilized to potentially increase animal welfare and discover potential species- specific enrichment preferences at the Georgia Aquarium. This study could ultimately improve training sessions and the enrichment program for the pinnipeds at Georgia Aquarium as well as be expanded upon at other facilities.