International Journal of Comparative Psychology

The aim of this paper is to illustrate how the training of marine mammals has facilitated improved marine mammal husbandry practices. The marine mammal community has seen many changes, refinements and improvements in animal care programs since the first marine mammals were brought in captivity in the early 19th century. Cross disciplinary fields such as veterinarian science, psychology, physiology and conservation biology have advanced the knowledge and care of the different species of cetaceans, pinnipeds, sirenians and otters and brought marine mammal care programs to the standard they are today. In this paper a broad overview is given of the main advances in husbandry training in marine mammal care programs worldwide.