THE PORPOISE IN CAPTIVITY 



By Charles Haskins Townsend, 

 Director of the New York Aquarium. 



Illustrated with photographs by E. R. Sanborn and the Author. 



The New York Aquarium has a school of porpoises and 

 lays claim to the world's best single exhibit of captive wild 

 animals. It is fascinating to have these lively rangers of the 

 open ocean actually dwelling in our midst. They are the same 

 "jolly porpoises" that make high speed dashes under the bows 

 of ships. No more popular exhibition of wild life has ever 

 been made anywhere. After seven months in a circular pool 

 thirty-seven feet in diameter and seven feet deep, they remain 

 in good condition, feeding, leaping and otherwise disporting 

 themselves after the manner of porpoises on the high seas. 

 There are five of them and their playful splashing throws show- 

 ers of water over visitors who venture too close. The exhibit 

 is unique, as there is no other Aquarium in America or Europe 

 equipped with pools large enough to accommodate such animals. 



Our specimens represent the so-called Bottle-nosed Porpoise, 

 {Tursiops truncatus Montagu), and were captured at Cape Hat- 

 teras. North Carolina, about 400 miles south of New York, on 

 November 12, 1913. 



The captive porpoises are very lively and keep swimming 

 day and night, rising to blow usually with each circuit of the 

 pool. Being kept in shallow water, they probably breathe often- 

 er than they would in deep water. They often swim under 

 water, belly up, like seals, but never lie upon the bottom or 

 bask at the surface as the latter do. Visitors ask whether they 

 ever rest — a question not easy to answer. If they do, it is 

 apparently without cessation of forward motion. Nevertheless 

 they are quieter at night when most of the lights are cut off, 

 and do not indulge in boisterous play. For a time two of them 

 habitually moved from left to right, while three took the opposite 

 course, but this practice soon became less regular and is appar- 



