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Biologist and head of the dolpinarium scientific research Alexander Zhbanov told Reuters the dolphins are well known for their ability to enjoy the training as a game.
Sebastopol, Ukraine - A dolphin trainer, who works in a dolphinarium in Sebastopol, Ukraine, Bogdan Dolgy, has trained a 15-year-old dolphin Gosha to jump out of the water and to crawl about 33 feet alongside the swimming pool.
Dolgy said the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin, weighing about 440 lb, made the first attempt to jump out of the water and to crawl on his own in the summer and seemed to enjoy it. It just needs a flat and smooth ground to crawl to make sure it does not injure itself.
Dolgy decided to train the dolphin and turn the skill into a stunt.
"I noticed once that a dolphin crawls out of the water to the swimming pool edge when some person is walking alongside the pool," Dolgy told Reuters. "The dolphin follows the human trying to imitate his or her movements, by simply crawling. However it's not just rolling on the ground but really crawling.
"After I noticed that I fixed it in his mind, gave him some fish and he liked it, and now it happens all the time, after every stunt he is swimming and splashing his tail on the surface of the water."
Dolgy added that the animal likes the process and demonstrates it eagerly but at the same time the stunt can tire out the dolphin which needs a rest after a couple of attempts.
"If compared to a human it's perhaps like making a human climb a tree like a monkey or swim like a fish," he said.
The Sebastopol dolphinarium hosts about 10 dolphins on a steady basis but only three are being continuously trained for stunts.
Biologist and head of the dolpinarium scientific research Alexander Zhbanov told Reuters the dolphins are well known for their ability to enjoy the training as a game.
"This is a creature (dolphin) which keeps interest for playing a game until it becomes old, until it dies," Zhbanov said. "It's like some men for example who are fond of soccer until their death, and many even play some sports games, so the dolphin has interest for games until its death.
Despite the entertainment some scientists and conservationists believe dolphinaria continue to threaten the Black Sea dolphin population due to the continual removal of wild dolphins.
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