Abstract

Providing quality food is an important aspect of the health and welfare of animals in human care. It has long been known that piscivorous species can develop nutritional diseases (thiamin deficiency, vitamin E deficiency, etc.). More recently, several metabolic syndromes possibly related to food (fatty liver disease, insulin resistance, iron overload disease and ammonium urate nephrolithiasis) have been described in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops spp.). Most species of marine mammals eat a large diversity of prey species in the wild, but food diversity is lower under managed care, and the supplied feed species are not always the most suitable. In order to continuously improve the health of the animals at Marineland Côte d’Azur, France, an effort to diversify diets began in 2018 for all marine mammal species (2 species of cetaceans and 5 species of pinnipeds). Extensive bibliographic research has made it possible to establish a list of prey species consumed in the wild for each of the marine mammal species of the park. The new diets were based on the main preferred prey species consumed in the wild and had to contain at least five different species of seafood per day for each species of marine mammal. Several difficulties had to be gradually resolved in order to carry out this project. The new seafood species chosen had to be available on the market, have an acceptable price, come from sustainable fishing, be of suitable size and be of palatability accepted by the animals of the park. Currently, 18 different species of seafood are available for the preparation of diets at Marineland Park, and each species of marine mammals receives between five and eight different items daily. This work is still an ongoing project 4 years after it began.