Baby Dolphin prepares to join at pod of four adults at an interactive show at Dubai Dolphinarium in May 17, 2013.
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00:00Here at Dubai Dolphinarium we had a dolphin calf that was born on the 28th of May 2012
00:20so he's just going on a year old.
00:22He was born at around 8.52 in the morning.
00:25The female dolphin, we knew that she was pregnant and we put her into a separate maternity
00:30pool waiting for the birth.
00:32And then one morning I came into work and she rolled over and the little fluke, the
00:36dolphin's tail was sticking out basically.
00:40I phoned my manager, he was stuck in traffic and of course he raced to get here.
00:44And yeah, it was a very, very easy birth, it was textbook, everything went absolutely
00:48perfectly.
00:49Xuxa, the mother, was pregnant for around 12 months, this is normal for dolphin gestation.
00:55And we've slowly been integrating the dolphin, the calf, back into the rest of the dolphin
00:59pod.
01:00Dolphins are very social animals and here at the Dolphinarium we have to ensure that
01:04their social structure is always kept to the best that it can possibly be.
01:09So at the moment what we're doing is we're bringing the baby out into the big pool with
01:12the rest of the dolphins, introducing him to the new sights, the lights, the bigger
01:17pool.
01:18The maternity pool at the back is smaller than this pool and this is just for better
01:21management of the calf.
01:23So yeah, he's learning the ropes very, very quickly and soon he'll be in the shows and
01:27the public can come and see him.
01:29People often ask how we train our dolphins.
01:31We do this through a method called positive reinforcement and operant conditioning.
01:35It's basically based around, essentially in life, if you go to work, you work to get paid.
01:41In the wild, dolphins hunt to catch fish.
01:43So we use the same process here.
01:46We use positive reinforcement, which could be fish, it could be ice blocks, it could
01:49be toys, anything that is motivating for the dolphins to come out and work during the show.
01:55It's also very important to work with them.
01:57We become an extension of their pod and their group and by working together as a team we
02:02are enabled to put the show on for you and make it positive for the dolphins.
02:06It's good exercise for them, it's good mental stimulation and then after the shows they
02:10go back, they relax, do a little bit more training and yeah, that's how we do it here
02:14at the Dolphinarium.