Compare and Contrast: Dolphins in Wild and Captivity

Dolphins are among the most intelligent animals. They are always friendly and take delight in playing with people. Because of their lovely appearance and high intelligence, many people began to keep them in a zoo or at sea world. This changed dolphins a lot. Although they are the same animals, actually, there are many differences between dolphins in the wild and in captivity.

To distinguish them from appearance is difficult. They look really alike, with similar gray back, lighter colored belly and smile-like mouth line.

In fact, they have the same physical characteristics. In addition, their instincts will never change in relation to their living places’ change. And wherever they live, every dolphin likes jumping and playing.

The Life style of dolphins at Sea World is pretty different from the wild dolphins. In the wild, dolphins live free and unfettered lives. They spend long times playing, looking for and chasing their prey. Another important thing in the wild dolphin’s daily life is communication. Because people keep them at sea world it disrupts their communications between other dolphins.

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Most people believe that dolphins which are trained by people have better intelligence. Trainers teach them to play tricks and to perform. People have developed domesticated dolphin’s intellect so that they can follow the instructions from trainers. This is what wild dolphins will never do. It doesn’t mean that wild dolphins are not smart. Actually they are clever, too. Wild dolphins are still cleverer than some other animals in the wild but their intellects are not developed so they can’t understand difficult things.

Domesticated dolphins always have a lower survival rate. It is much easier to live at sea world than in the wild, because people feed them and protect them from their enemies and there is no environment pollution or human threats to worry about. However, at least half of the dolphins in captivity will die in less than seven years. Although wild dolphins need to face human hunting and environment pollution, they still enjoy a longer life than dolphins at sea world.

Keeping dolphins at sea world is popular while people have different attitudes towards it. Many people are against dolphin captivity. On the contrary, there are some people in favor of keeping dolphins at sea world. Both wild dolphins and captive dolphins have their own advantages and disadvantages. It’s no doubt that captive dolphins will bring us a lot of fun. But to dolphins, it may be very cruel and unfair. They suffer in captivity. So I think people should oppose dolphin’s captivity.