Moscow Dolphinarium

The Moscow Dolphinarium is one of the most popular spectacular places in Moscow! Children and adults enjoy visiting the Moscow Dolphinarium with whole families. Dolphinarium is a large complex of structures, with swimming pools for keeping marine animals and a swimming pool for performances, equipped mainly for keeping and studying dolphins, as well as for training, performing and studying dolphins. Dolphinarium is a type of oceanarium. Dolphins are surprisingly highly developed animals. Their brains are very similar to humans. Some researchers seriously believe that it is possible to establish a reasonable conversational communication with dolphins by teaching them human language. Then it is interesting and knowledgeable dolphins will talk about their lives, about sunken ships full of jewelry, about enemy submarines and other secrets of the sea depths. But, in the meantime, dolphins along with other marine artists demonstrate their talents, performing in front of enthusiastic spectators in water arenas in different parts of the world. The history of real work with dolphins begins in the seventies. Then the military wondered whether dolphins can be used for military purposes. And they turned to university scientists. A real research center was organized in the Cossack Bay, near Sevastopol. A variety of studies were conducted there. The main area of use of “military” dolphins is the protection of various objects. Dolphin was supposed to “name” the surrounding space with its locator, and when a person with certain (not “our”) equipment appeared, it would signal people. Another area of use for trained dolphins is to help humans work in the water. Bring different objects, lift them from the depths, etc. For scientists working at the base, it was a unique opportunity to study these animals with the most advanced equipment. Comprehensive scientific research was carried out. The physiology of dolphins, higher nervous activity, hydrodynamics, hydroacoustics, etc. were studied. It was there that dolphin sleep patterns were discovered. Soviet scientists L. M. Mukhametov and A. Y. Supin found that dolphins sleep one-hemispheric sleep - that is, one hemisphere rests, the second is awake. Then vice versa. To sleep like a man, both hemispheres at once, dolphins can not - drown. No land animal can sleep like a dolphin. The history of the Moscow Dolphinarium began not in Moscow, but on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus. In the 1980s, Cape Maly Utrish near Novorossiysk was completely wild and deserted. Then the scientists chose this secluded corner. Dolphins lived here in freedom, and they could be watched directly from the shore. In order to better study the behavior of dolphins, some of them were placed in specially fenced coastal “enclosures”. Communication with dolphins began with a veterinary examination - they took blood, conducted various tests. If the dolphin was healthy, then he began to teach to eat dead fish, as in nature they used to eat only “live food”. This took a lot of time, because a day dolphin should eat about 16 kilograms of fish. When animals got used to artificial feed, they were placed in specially equipped pools. Thus, the now world-famous Utrish biological station was created. In addition to scientific work on Utrisha began to train dolphins. And in 1984, the first performance of these amazing artists took place in the Utrish Dolphinarium. And after 6 years, in 1990, the doors of the Moscow Dolphinarium opened, the main artists of which were also dolphins from Cape Maly Utrish. But, unfortunately, in Moscow, dolphins began to get sick, and they were immediately taken back to the south. The problem was that the dolphins “did not like” the quality of the “capital water”. It took 3 years for the director of the Moscow Dolphinarium, Vladimir Petrushin, to assemble a group of scientists and develop a special technology for preparing sea water suitable for keeping dolphins. In 1993, the problem was solved, and on the eve of 1994, dolphins from the Utrish Dolphinarium - the beluga Egor and four Black Sea bottlenose dolphins were brought to Moscow again. In order to keep marine animals in captivity, they need to create the conditions in which they are accustomed to exist in the natural environment. This means that the water in the pool should be sea and always perfectly clean. Until 2001, saturated salt solution was pumped, from a depth of one and a half kilometers, from an ancient underground well. A pure solution of salt brine was mixed with fresh tap water. And the finished water came to the pools. Special plastic filters were brought from Spain, through which the water was constantly filtered, both the main and auxiliary pools. All the old metal pipes that “suffered” with constant corrosion were also replaced with plastic ones. But in 2001, the underground well ceased to exist, it simply collapsed from old age. And now the specialists of the chemical laboratory of the dolphinarium have developed a new way of preparing water - fresh water is specially "salted", then it is purified through filters, and only then enters the pools. Several times a day, water is tested for quality. The Moscow Dolphinarium has its own veterinary group, whose employees closely monitor the health of animals. Each artist has his own medical card, it records not only the weight and height of the patient, but also all the results of medical research. There is also a so-called coach card, where he daily records all the features of the behavior of the animal. Having visited the performance in the Moscow Dolphinarium, you will certainly be charged with the energy of this water theater. And this energy is special - kind, cheerful, cheerful. After the performance, anyone can take a picture with a dolphin or a beluga.