Community Project: Help us find animal information!

[Slick]

For those out of the loop, there's been a lot of controversy online recently from certain groups claiming that the living conditions for the animals at Sea World specifically are, for the lack of a better word, terrible. 

I'm a strong believer in swaying discussion not by belittling or being petty, but rather by presenting great information in an entertaining way. To do this we're looking for as much information, data and anything else you can provide that will help us build a solid catalogue of facts to steer the conversation towards logic and reason.

That's why we're turning to the community. Let's band together and with your help, start finding all the news clippings, online posts, random citations, research papers, data points, content sources & info we can to hopefully dispel some of the most common misconceptions (like that dolphins live shorter lives at Sea World or that they live in tanks, both of which is not true.)

Do you know of a research paper about dolphins in captivity? Post it here. Got a great piece you know of that covers what Dreamworld are doing with Tiger Island? We'd love that link too.

Help continue to support our parks by supporting us in our endeavours to create content that'll help us all remove the stigma that surrounds the places we love to visit the most.

[rac2703]

 Not sure if anyone else saw this story on 7 News this weekend - It is a positive story about the captive animals at Dreamworld and how the "rapids" incident affected them, though I question the "clickbait" like title.

[MickeyD]

Conservation is a key message of Seaworld and Dreamworld. On a recent trip to DW I learnt about the 'Save the Bilby fund' and a little about the Park's efforts with other Wildlife.

As I am sure most are aware these little critters are on the verge of extinction and if it weren't for the efforts of places like DW we may have already lost them. 

If you would like to find out more about Dreamworld's program on Australia's own Easter Bunny, click the link below:

https://savethebilbyfund.com/about-save-the-bilby-fund/supporters-patrons

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

57 minutes ago, rac2703 said:

 Not sure if anyone else saw this story on 7 News this weekend - It is a positive story about the captive animals at Dreamworld and how the "rapids" incident affected them, though I question the "clickbait" like title.

I can already guarantee what these 'save the animals' people would answer in response to that:
 

Quote

But they'd be happier in the wild than in a cage!

 

 

[MickeyD]

1 hour ago, AlexB said:

I can already guarantee what these 'save the animals' people would answer in response to that:
 

 

My retort to these twits:

"They certainly aren't going to be safe from extinction if entirely left in the Wild"

[Santa07]

1 hour ago, AlexB said:

I can already guarantee what these 'save the animals' people would answer in response to that:
 

 

They'd be more happy, but also more dead.

[jjuttp]

Now we've got a thread right up my alley. For those that have been here a while may remember i used to be a Zookeeper, so I've tried to dig up some of the old information goldmines we had to use in TAFE. For the useful links that are still live (links die quickly in this field) I've posted the useful ones to this subject below.

 

http://www.australasianzookeeping.org/Husbandry Manuals.htm

While not the best looking site (it used to be white and cleaner), this website is the Holy Grail of facts. while there's nothing pertaining to Dolphins (dead links) left, i posted the menu so everybody can do some digging themselves for any animal they want to look into. 

http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/act/1986/123

Holy Grail #2. If i had remembered how to properly use the act, i'd know how to get the right info from S14.

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/animals-and-livestock/animal-welfare/exhibit/national-standards-and-guidelines-for-exhibited-animals/standards-and-guidelines

This is something new and cool that wasn't live when i was studying.

http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/#/view/regulation/2010/444/full

Also Grail, But still cant read.

 

For anyone looking into Zoos and Aquariums, the ASZK, DPI and EAPA together form the Holy Trinity of information. I believe off the top of my head, the DPI have somewhere (i think its in the act) minimum space requirements for Every.Single.Animal allowed in the country. Every zoo goer should be thankful for the work David Fleay (silent E) put into his work in the 50s and 60s. He singlehandidly changed zoos forever (and got fired for it).