The roughly 40-year-old bottlenose dolphin Nephele was fully healthy on the morning of January 15. A moment later she began to move in an unusual way and sank to the bottom of the pool.
— It was a quick process. When the vet arrived at the scene, she had already passed away. It is very sad. Nephele was a much-loved dolphin, says Bim Boijsen at Kolmården Zoo.
On Wednesday, the autopsy report came from the Swedish Veterinary Medical Institute.
Stimulates the animals
According to the report, Nephele had ingested a piece of artificial seaweed that was used as so-called environmental enrichment in the pool.
Bim Boijsen explains that the environmental enrichment is there to stimulate the animals in their environment. It can be a toy, something to gnaw on or something else you add to the environment to make it as dynamic as possible. In this case, the basin was thus enriched with seaweed.
“The piece of seaweed was found in her throat and it had lodged so badly that it affected her breathing,” she says.
Under liquidation
The dolphin was probably suffocated by the seaweed.
— We take this very seriously. The enrichment is for the well-being of our animals. The seaweed in question has been removed and we have taken other measures, among other things we have introduced increased controls on environmental enrichment, says Bim Boijsen.
The dolphin operations at Kolmården are being discontinued. The decision was made in 2022, but it is unclear when it will be completed. The zoo has previously received criticism because many of their dolphins, especially young ones, have died prematurely. There are currently eleven dolphins left at Kolmården’s dolphinarium.