Kharkiv dolphins start performing at the Constanta Dolphinarium in Romania

Four dolphins from the Dolphinarium of Kharkiv, Ukraine - Kiki, Maia, Marucya, and Veterok - have begun performing alongside the Constanta Dolphinarium’s own dolphins, Nini and Chan-Chan.

On Sunday, June 19, hundreds of people gathered to watch their first performance: a public training event.

Having arrived in Constanta on May 11, accompanied by staff from the Kharkiv Dolphinarium, the dolphins were first put in a separate tank where, for animal health and safety reasons, they were quarantined for 30 days.

They have now completed their quarantine period and the caretakers and trainers have concluded that they get on well with the Romanian dolphins, so they will be training and performing together from now on.

“As you can see, Maia, Kiki, Marucya, Veterok, Chan-Chan, and Nini are forming a solid group, and their trainers are friends too. They’re harmonizing more and more,” said Iulian Călin, the director of the Natural Sciences Museum Complex to News.ro after the performance.

The 20-minute performance included four trainers, two Romanian, and two from Ukraine, who mostly took turns working with their own dolphins. A few moments were performed by all six of the dolphins.

The director of the Dolphinarium, Angelica Curlișcă, told journalists that they are currently trying to create harmony between the different styles of the two dolphinariums: “Working together is a bit more difficult because there are two different styles at work. We had to watch our Ukrainian colleagues’ demonstration several times, and they watched our demonstration too so that we could find common behavioral elements.”

According to Iulian Călin, the Constanta Dolphinarium wishes to keep this collaboration long-term, having already announced a series of twice-daily, soon-to-be thrice-daily performances.

(Photo source: Kharkov Dolphinarium Facebook page)