In 2022, trainers at Mystic Aquarium aimed to further study the vocal imitation capacity of beluga whales. A twenty-one-year-old adult male beluga whale was chosen to participate due to his history of spontaneous mimicry of environmental sounds (e.g., gate noises, ducks, sirens).

This project focuses on two male California sea lions, Bodega and Qizai, who presented with spontaneous hindlimb paralysis, with no obvious catalyst for their conditions.

Positive reinforcement training has been shown to reliably increase positive affect/decrease negative affect in numerous species under human care, including lemurs (Spiezio et al., 2017), baboons (O’Brien et al., 2008), chimpanzees (Lambeth et al., 2006; Pomerantz & Terkel, 2009) and lab-housed species including primates and rodents (Graham, 2017; Laule, 2010).

According to the IUCN Red List, 26 percent of all cetacean species are now classified as threatened — a significant increase from 15 percent in 1991 — with a further 11 percent considered near-threatened.