Dolphin-WET-Development of a Welfare Evaluation Tool for Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) under Human Care.

Ensuring high standards of animal welfare is not only an ethical duty for zoos and aquariums, but it is also essential to achieve their conservation, education, and research goals. While for some species, animal welfare assessment frameworks are already in place, little has been done for marine animals under human care. Responding to this demand, the welfare committee of the European Association for Aquatic Mammals (EAAM) set up a group of experts on welfare science, cetacean biology, and zoo animal medicine across Europe. Their objective was to develop a comprehensive tool to evaluate the welfare of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), named Dolphin-WET. The tool encompasses 49 indicators that were either validated through peer review or management-based expertise. The first of its kind, the Dolphin-WET is a species-specific welfare assessment tool that provides a holistic approach to evaluating dolphin welfare. Inspired by Mellor's Five Domains Model and the Welfare Quality®, its hierarchical structure allows for detailed assessments from overall welfare down to specific indicators. Through combining 37 animal-based and 12 resource-based indicators that are evaluated based on a two- or three-level scoring, the protocol offers a detailed evaluation of individual dolphins. This approach allows for regular internal monitoring and targeted welfare management, enabling caretakers to address specific welfare concerns effectively.

Visual and acoustic exploratory behaviors toward novel stimuli in Antillean manatees (Trichechus manatus manatus) under human care.

Exploratory behaviors describe the actions performed by an animal to obtain information on an object, environment, or individual by using its different senses. Exploration is described in some marine mammals, but not yet in manatees. Our study investigated behavioral and acoustic responses of two groups of Antillean manatees (N = 12 and N = 4) housed in zoological parks toward various stimuli involving three sensory modalities: visual, tactile, and auditory. Simultaneous audio and video recordings were collected during three periods of time (i.e., before, during, and after the presentation of all stimuli). Behaviors related to interest, social behaviors, the number and type of calls produced, and their frequency and duration were recorded and analyzed. Manatees reacted more to submerged stimuli than to out-of-water and sound stimuli, with an increase in approach, social contacts, and number of vocalizations. The proportion of squeaks and squeals call types also varied according to stimuli, and call entropy and F0 range varied according to periods. Our results suggest that manatees display sensory preferences when exploring stimuli, with more interest in manipulable stimuli, supporting the importance of their somatic perception. We highlight the need for particular enrichment programs (i.e., involving submerged objects) in zoological facilities. By displaying social contacts and by producing vocalizations, manatees communicate information such as their motivational state. The increase in call rate, harsh calls, and entropy values could be valid indicators of heightened arousal. We encourage further studies to associate acoustic recordings with ethological data collection to increase the understanding of manatees' behaviors andperception. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Manatees in Zoological Parks throughout the World: History, State, and Welfare.

The order Sirenia comprises several species of manatees and one species of dugong. These popular marine mammals are relatively recent acquisitions to zoological parks throughout the world. As far as we know, there are less than 200 manatees, mostly American, a few African, and ever less Amazonian, currently in zoological parks. American manatees are predominantly found in zoos in Europe, North America, and in some Asian countries, while African ones are present exclusively in Asian zoos. The living conditions of captive manatees differ considerably from zoo to zoo (i.e., numbers, sex ratio, outdoor vs. indoor habitats, complex vs. simple habitats). Most research on manatee behaviour has been relatively recent, and studies on cognition, sociality, and ecology have a significant impact on our perception of manatee needs and management, with wider implications for their welfare. In the wild, manatees demonstrated various cognitive capacities; spatial memory and learning abilities play an important role in their daily life in a complex and dynamic environment. Furthermore, there is evidence that these mammals are more social animals than expected. Individuals show various personality traits on the boldness-shyness continuum and their sociality varies. All those parameters are important in terms of animal welfare. Several behavioural studies showed that standardized enrichment programs benefit and ensure the welfare of captive zoo animals. However, obtaining accurate information on the presence of manatees in zoos, living conditions, management, and consequently welfare remains challenging. This study examines the current knowledge on manatee behaviour and cognition and then discusses different approaches to improving the welfare of this charismatic marine mammal in zoological parks.

Cognition of the manatee: past research and future developments.

In this paper, we present a review of the current knowledge related to the cognitive abilities of the manatee, with a focus on the Antillean manatee in situ and ex situ. Following a biocentric approach, we consider the animals' ecology, perception and sociality and we introduce future perspectives on their cognition. Scientific literature on the cognitive abilities of Antillean manatees' is limited and mainly linked to medical training and veterinary manipulations. To perceive and to interact with their social and natural environment (e.g. social interactions, foraging and traveling), manatees use visual, acoustic and tactile modalities that may be involved in a large range of cognitive abilities. Research on stimuli perception in manatees is scarce; however, these animals demonstrate abilities to learn and appear to show long-term memory. For example, to mate and/or to forage manatees travel at medium and large geographical scales; without doubt their movements entail the use of a set of stimuli and learning processes. Furthermore, their social skills (e.g. social organization, tactile and acoustic communications) are also poorly understood although their social interactions appear to be more complex than previously thought. Finally, as for many animals, temperament/personality may play a key role during their interactions with conspecifics and the environment. These aspects on manatee behavior and cognition are important for management and conservation purposes and help us understand the evolution of these marine mammals.

Dolphin Watching and Compliance to Guidelines Affect Spinner Dolphins' (Stenella longirostris) Behaviour in Reunion Island.

Marine wildlife tourism has rapidly developed in Reunion Island, due to a large demand for interactions with a resident population of spinner dolphins (Stenella longirostris). The presence of dolphin-watching vessels close to dolphin groups can cause short-term impacts on their behaviour; cumulative incidences likely result in deleterious long-term impacts on the population. Using scan sampling, we collected behavioural data on spinner dolphins to evaluate the short-term effects of dolphin watching on their behaviour. The dolphins were less likely to begin socialising or diving while travelling and more likely to stay travelling and milling in the presence of vessels. Additionally, activity budgets for resting and socialising decreased simultaneously with increased travelling and milling. Avoidance responses significantly increased with an increase in the number of vessels and non-compliance with the local dolphin-watching guidelines. These behavioural responses are likely to have energetic costs for the dolphins, which may lead to decreased survival and reproductive success at individual and population levels. More restrictive regulations, increased surveillance and animal-based measures are key tools to adapt the conservation efforts in Reunion Island. Further studies on the island's resident dolphin populations are necessary to ensure the continuity of dolphin-watching activities in a sustainable manner.

Behavioural Diversity Study in Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) Groups and Its Implications for Welfare Assessments.

In the recent past, animal welfare studies have tried to determine the best animal welfare measures and indicators. Expression of behavioural diversity is considered a potential positive welfare indicator, and to the authors' knowledge, it has not been validated nor studied in cetaceans. For the first time, a behavioural diversity study on bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) groups was conducted at six European facilities. The study was carried out by the animal care staff, biologists and veterinarians and included 54 dolphins housed in several group compositions at the different participating facilities. The goal of our study was to analyse behavioural diversity in bottlenose dolphins at the group level to investigate how particular factors might impact the diversity of behaviours within the group and to discuss its implications for dolphin welfare assessments. Eight factors (i.e., "observer location", "number of individuals", "age class", "sex", "social grouping", "presence/absence of leading male", "presence/absence of visitors" and "enrichment provision") impacted the behavioural diversity of the observed groups, while no significant impact of the factors "time of day" and "activity before/after observation" could be found. Our study showed the feasibility of this kind of approach for cetaceans under professional care and the relevance to considering this parameter in dolphin welfare studies, despite certain limitations that warrant further research.

Kin relationships in cultural species of the marine realm: case study of a matrilineal social group of sperm whales off Mauritius island, Indian Ocean.

Understanding the organization and dynamics of social groups of marine mammals through the study of kin relationships is particularly challenging. Here, we studied a stable social group of sperm whales off Mauritius, using underwater observations, individual-specific identification, non-invasive sampling and genetic analyses based on mitochondrial sequencing and microsatellite profiling. Twenty-four sperm whales were sampled between 2017 and 2019. All individuals except one adult female shared the same mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotype-one that is rare in the western Indian Ocean-thus confirming with near certainty the matrilineality of the group. All probable first- and second-degree kin relationships were depicted in the sperm whale social group: 13 first-degree and 27 second-degree relationships were identified. Notably, we highlight the likely case of an unrelated female having been integrated into a social unit, in that she presented a distinct mtDNA haplotype and no close relationships with any members of the group. Investigating the possible matrilineality of sperm whale cultural units (i.e. vocal clans) is the next step in our research programme to elucidate and better apprehend the complex organization of sperm whale social groups.

Prosociality and reciprocity in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus).

Some moral behaviours, often regarded as reflecting high cognitive abilities (such as empathy, cooperation, targeted helping) are known to only be present in very few species, like great apes, elephants and cetaceans. Prosocial behaviours (producing a benefit for the recipient without necessarily involving a cost for the actor) have been mostly found in primates and, more recently, in elephants. Despite dolphins' reputation for helping their conspecifics, experimental studies about their prosocial and empathic abilities are rare. We conducted Prosocial Choice Tests in six bottlenose dolphins. The subjects had to choose between three objects: choosing the prosocial object induced the simultaneous rewarding of both the subject and a recipient individual; choosing the selfish object induced a reward only for the subject; choosing the null one did not reward anyone. We found prosociality and direct reciprocity in our subjects, and our results suggested that bottlenose dolphins might be able to modulate their prosocial and reciprocal tendencies according to partner-specific information. Subjects seemed to be more prosocial towards the other sex and more reciprocal towards same-sex recipients. This reciprocity might be underpinned by the same features that rule their behaviours in the wild (cooperating with same sex conspecifics). Moreover, an audience effect was reported, as the presence of the subject's young increased subjects' likelihood of prosocial response. Our findings highlighted that prosociality could appear in taxa other than primates, suggesting a convergent evolutionary phenomenon.

Bottlenose dolphins' (Tursiops Truncatus) visual and motor laterality depending on emotional contexts.

Hemispheric lateralization is a specialized neural and cognitive processing achieved preferentially by either the left or the right hemisphere of the brain. Among vertebrates, emotions processing seems to be lateralized, but the involvement of each hemisphere is still on debate. Our study investigated visual and motor laterality on five bottlenose dolphins' (Tursiops truncatus) during spontaneous and experimentally induced emotional contexts. We measured motor laterality in pectoral used and swimming position during positive social interactions. Additionally, during training sessions, stimuli with positive or negative emotional valences were presented either on the dolphins' left or right side. Emotional reactions toward stimuli were measured and a visual laterality index was calculated. Dolphins were visually left-lateralized during training sessions. They also reacted more when negative stimuli were presented on their left side than right side during the first stimuli presentation. Our results suggest that bottlenose dolphins, like other vertebrates, may present a right hemisphere dominance for social information processing, detection of and response to unpredictable or novel stimuli and a left-hemisphere dominance during escape responses inhibition. Further studies on a larger sample size should explore inter-individual variation and identify other potential contexts in which lateralization emerges. Emotional lateralization should be considered as a potential indicator for future dolphin welfare assessment.

Acoustic behaviour of bottlenose dolphins under human care while performing synchronous aerial jumps.

Synchronous behaviours occur when two or more animals display the same behaviour at the same time. However, the mechanisms underlying this synchrony are not well understood. In this study, we carried out an experiment to determine whether or not Bottlenose dolphins use acoustic cues when performing a known synchronised exercise. For this, we recorded three dolphins while they performed requested aerial jumps both individually or synchronously in pairs, with a hydrophone array and a 360° underwater video camera allowing the identification of the subject emitting vocalisations. Results indicated that in pairs, dolphins synchronised their jumps 100% of the time. Whether they jumped alone or in pairs, they produced click trains before and after 92% of jumps. No whistles or burst-pulsed sounds were emitted by the animals during the exercise. The acoustic localisation process allowed the successful identification of the vocalising subject in 19.8% of all cases (N = 141). Our study showed that in all (n = 28) but one successful localisations, the click trains were produced by the same individual. It is worth noting that this individual was the oldest female of the group. This paper provides evidence suggesting that during synchronous behaviours, dolphins use acoustic cues, and more particularly click trains, to coordinate their movements; possibly by eavesdropping on the clicks or echoes produced by one individual leading the navigation.

Contexts of emission of non-signature whistles in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) under human care.

Bottlenose dolphins are social cetaceans that strongly rely on acoustic communication and signaling. The diversity of sounds emitted by the species has been structurally classified into whistles, clicks and burst-pulsed sounds. Although click sounds and individually-specific signature whistles have been largely studied, not much is known about non-signature whistles. Most studies that link behavior and whistle production conduct aerial behavioral observations and link the production of whistles to the general category of social interactions. The aim of this study was to determine if there was a correlation between the non-signature whistle production and the underwater behaviors of a group of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) under human care, during their free time in the absence of trainers. To do this we made audio-video recordings 15 min before and after 10 training sessions of eight dolphins in Boudewijn Seapark (Belgium). For the behavioral analysis we conducted focal follows on each individual based on six behavioral categories. For the acoustical analysis, carried out at the group level, we used the SIGID method to identify non-signature whistles (N = 661) and we classified them in six categories according to their frequency modulation. The occurrences of the six categories of whistles were highly collinear. Most importantly, non-signature whistle production was positively correlated with the time individuals spent slow swimming alone, and was negatively correlated with the time spent in affiliative body contact. This is the first analysis that links the production of non-signature whistles with particular underwater behaviors in this species.

Dolphins' Willingness to Participate (WtP) in Positive Reinforcement Training as a Potential Welfare Indicator, Where WtP Predicts Early Changes in Health Status.

Welfare science has built its foundations on veterinary medicine and thus measures of health. Since bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) tend to mask symptoms of poor health, management in captivity would benefit from advanced understanding on the links between health and behavioural parameters, and few studies exist on the topic. In this study, four representative behavioural and health measures were chosen: health status (as qualified by veterinarians), percentage of daily food eaten, occurrences of new rake marks (proxy measure of social activity), and willingness to participate (WtP) in Positive Reinforcement Training sessions as qualitatively measured by their caretakers. These data were collected multiple times a day, every day over the course of a year from a multi-facility, large sample size (n dolphins = 51), allowing powerful analyses of the relationships between measures. First, it was found that dolphins with a higher WtP score also had a significantly better health status, ate a higher percentage of their daily food, and a lower occurrence of new rake marks. In addition, the WtP score was significantly lower up to 3 days before the weekly veterinary diagnosis of a decrease in health state; the percentage of daily food eaten and new rake mark measures did not show any significant change before such a diagnosis. These results suggest that WtP in training sessions is a potential behavioural measure of dolphin welfare, and an indicator of early changes in the dolphins' health state. We therefore suggest measurement of WtP as a more practical and non-invasive tool to support veterinary care and general management. More work needs to be conducted to elucidate the influence of social behaviour on health, and to identify other potential welfare indicators, but this long-term study has shown that qualitative measures can be both practical and valid when assessing dolphin welfare.

Does Enrichment Improve Well Being in Animals under Human Care? A Case Study of Two Harbor Seals (Phoca Vitulina).

Harbor seals in the wild live in a stimulating environment; therefore, nonhuman-animal caretakers have increasingly been using environmental enrichment to improve the well being of seals under human care. The purpose of this study was to evaluate an object-based environmental enrichment program during a four-month period on stimulating exploration and play and improving conspecific social interactions and human-animal relationships (HAR). Zoo staff conducted the environmental enrichment program as part of the animal care program. Seals were given objects haphazardly and were observed for 20 minutes, and seals' responsiveness during training sessions before and after enrichment was assessed. Seals showed interest in objects throughout the study and interacted more times per session with objects during the later months. Seals showed preferences for objects that were suspended in the water column (e.g., rope). Seals did not show more affiliative behavior but did show some aggressive behavior during enrichment sessions in comparison with free-swimming sessions. One seal showed better responsiveness to trainers in training sessions that followed an enrichment session than in other trainings sessions. Overall, the enrichment program was successful in increasing intrinsically motivated behaviors and showed that object-based enrichment has the potential to improve HAR between seals and their trainers.

Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) sonar slacks off before touching a non-alimentary target.

Odontocetes modulate the rhythm of their echolocation clicks to draw information about their environment. When they approach preys to capture, they speed up their emissions to increase the sampling rate of "distant touch" and improve information update. This global acceleration turns into a "terminal buzz" also described in bats, which is a click train with drastic increase in rate, just as reaching the prey. This study documents and analyses under human care bottlenose dolphins' echolocation activity, when approaching non-alimentary targets. Four dolphins' locomotor and clicking behaviours were recorded during training sessions, when sent to immersed objects pointed by their trainers. Results illustrate that these dolphins profusely use echolocation towards immersed non-alimentary objects. They accelerate click emission when approaching the target, thus displaying a classical terminal buzz. However, their terminal buzz slackens off within a quarter of second before the end of click train. Typically, they decelerate to stop clicking just before they touch the object using their rostrum lower tip. They do not emit clicks as the contact lasts. In conclusion, when exploring inert objects, bottlenose dolphins under human accelerate clicking like other odontocetes or bats approaching preys. Bottlenose dolphins' particular slackening-off profile at the end of the buzz shows that they anticipate the moment of direct contact, and they stop just as real touch relays distant touch of the object.

Cognitive judgement bias is associated with frequency of anticipatory behavior in bottlenose dolphins.

Many animals display a suite of increased vigilance and/or activity responses in relation to upcoming events, termed "anticipatory behavior." Anticipatory behavior toward positive events has been suggested as a cross-species measure of affective state as it likely reflects the balance of the reward-sensitivity system: various studies suggest that animals in poorer welfare situations show higher or excessive levels of anticipation for positive events. Another tool for evaluating animals' affective state is cognitive bias testing, and although it has been attempted, a link has not yet been made between cognitive bias and anticipatory behavior levels. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) in captivity increase the performance of behaviors such as surface-looking and spy-hopping in anticipation of training sessions during which food is provided. In this study we measured anticipatory behavior frequency in bottlenose dolphins prior to positive reinforcement training sessions, and assessed whether frequency of anticipatory behavior correlated with their performance on cognitive bias tasks. We found that higher frequencies of anticipatory behavior for training sessions was significantly associated with more pessimistic judgements in cognitive bias tests, supporting previous findings linking higher reward sensitivity with negative affective states. Anticipatory behavior is an easily measured activity and could represent a welfare indicator in dolphins as well as other animals in captive environments.

Schedule of human-controlled periods structures bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) behavior in their free-time.

Behavioral patterns are established in response to predictable environmental cues. Animals under human care frequently experience predictable, human-controlled events each day, but very few studies have questioned exactly how behavioral patterns are affected by such activities. Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) maintained for public display are good models to study such patterns since they experience multiple daily human-controlled periods (e.g., shows, training for shows, medical training). Thus, we investigated the effect of training session schedule on their "free-time" behavior, studying 29 individuals within 4 groups from 3 European facilities. Our initial time budget analyses revealed that among the behaviors studied, dolphins spent the most time engaged in synchronous swimming, and within this category swam most at slow speeds and in close proximity to each other. "Slow-close" synchronous swimming peaked shortly after training sessions and was low shortly before the next session. Play behavior had significantly higher frequencies in juveniles than in adults, but the effect was only seen during the in-between session period (interval neither shortly before nor after sessions). Anticipatory behavior toward sessions was significantly higher shortly before sessions and lower afterward. We conclude that dolphin behaviors unconnected to the human-controlled periods were modulated by them: slow-close synchronous swimming and age-dependent play, which have important social dimensions and links to welfare. We discuss potential parallels to human-controlled periods in other species, including humans themselves. Our findings could be taken into account when designing welfare assessments, and aid in the provision of enrichment and maintaining effective schedules beneficial to animals themselves. (PsycINFO Database Record

Environmental changes and anthropogenic factors modulate social play in captive bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus).

Social play varies among species and individuals and changes in frequency and duration during ontogeny. This type of play is modulated by environmental changes (e.g., resource availability). In captivity, cetaceans and their environment are managed by humans, and training sessions and/or public presentations punctuate the day as well as other frequent or occasional events. There is a lack of research on the effects of environmental events that occur in captivity and might affect dolphins' behavior. We studied the context in which nine bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) played socially and the events that could potentially impact this social interaction. The dolphins' social play behavior was significantly more frequent and lasted longer in the morning than in the afternoon and was present before and after interactions with their trainers with a non-significant tendency to be more frequent before and after a training session than a public presentation. In an experimental paradigm using familiar environmental enrichment, our results demonstrated that environmental enrichment tended to increase social play duration whereas temporary noisy construction work around the pool and display of agonistic behaviors by members of the group significantly decreased it. These results contribute to better understand the social play distribution in captive bottlenose dolphins and the impact of different events within their daily lives. Since play decreases or disappears when animals are facing unfavorable conditions, the evaluation of social play may relate to the animals' current well-being. We suggest that social play has potential to become an indicator of bottlenose dolphins' current welfare state.

Bottlenose dolphins engaging in more social affiliative behaviour judge ambiguous cues more optimistically.

Cognitive bias tests measure variation in emotional appraisal and are validated methods to assess animals' affective states. However, the link between social behaviours and cognitive bias has not yet been investigated. Bottlenose dolphins are a gregarious species for whom welfare research is increasing in importance, and thus are a good model to test such an association. We adapted a spatial location judgement bias test for eight captive bottlenose dolphins to investigate the link between cognitive bias and social behaviour, where we conducted behavioural observations outside of training sessions and did not experimentally induce an affective state. Subjects showed stable individual differences in cognitive biases across the three test days. Furthermore, dolphins showing more synchronous swimming, a fundamental affiliative behaviour, judged ambiguous cues significantly more optimistically. Our longer-term data showed cognitive bias and synchronous swimming frequency were significantly associated for up to two months preceding the test, but disappeared prior to that, suggesting that here cognitive bias differences were reflected by transitory affective states rather than longer-term traits. We hypothesise that the frequency of synchronous swimming may induce affective states and/or be induced by them; either way, it has strong potential as an indicator of affective state in this species and beyond.

Modulation of whistle production related to training sessions in bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) under human care.

Bottlenose dolphins are highly social cetaceans with an extensive sound production including clicks, burst-pulsed sounds, and whistles. Some whistles, known as signature whistles, are individually specific. These acoustic signatures are commonly described as being emitted in contexts of stress during forced isolation and as group cohesion calls. Interactions between humans and captive dolphins is largely based on positive reinforcement conditioning within several training/feeding sessions per day. Vocal behavior of dolphins during these interactions might vary. To investigate this, we recorded 10 bottlenose dolphins of Parc Asterix dolphinarium (France) before, during and after 10 training sessions for a total duration of 7 hr and 32 min. We detected 3,272 whistles with 2,884 presenting a quality good enough to be categorized. We created a catalog of whistle types by visual categorization verified by five naive judges (Fleiss' Kappa Test). We then applied the SIGID method to identify the signatures whistles present in our recordings. We found 279 whistles belonging to one of the four identified signature whistle types. The remaining 2,605 were classified as non-signature whistles. The non-signature whistles emission rate was higher during and after the training sessions than before. Emission rate of three signature whistles types significantly increased afterwards as compared to before the training sessions. We suggest that dolphins use their signature whistles when they return to their intraspecific social interactions succeeding scheduled and human-organized training sessions. More observations are needed to make conclusions about the function of signature whistles in relation to training sessions. Zoo Biol. 35:495-504, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Sea lions' (Zalophus californianus) use of human pointing gestures as referential cues.

This experiment investigated the ability of four human-socialized sea lions to exploit human communicative gestures in three different object-choice tasks based on directional cues emitted by their caretakers. In Study 1, three of the tested subjects were able to generalize their choice of the pointed target to variations of the basic pointing gestures (i.e., cross-body point, elbow point, foot point, and gaze only), from the very first trials. Study 2 showed that the subjects could follow the pointing gestures geometrically and select the correct target among four possible targets, two on each side of the informant. In Study 3, we tested the robustness of their tendency to follow a pointing gesture by hiding targets behind barriers. One subject was able to follow pointing gestures towards targets not visible at the moment of their decision without any training, despite the presence of another visible and directly accessible one. Taken together, these results suggest that sea lions were able to use the referential property of the human pointing gesture, because they were able to rely on extrapolating precise linear vectors along different pointing body parts in order to identify a precise object rather than merely a general direction. These findings support previous arguments that some non-domesticated species might have as great an ability to respond appropriately to pointing gestures as domesticated dogs. The potential roles of human-socialization and specific features of wild sea lions ecology are discussed.