As you prepare to stick to your resolutions for the new year, we wanted to share a few that we learned from our animals at SeaWorld Orlando, Aquatica, and Discovery Cove:
1) Commerson’s Dolphin: “To see life through a new angle.” I swim fast and fancy, often leaping, spinning, and riding waves and swells. I often swim upside down and feed in this position as well, which gives the advantage of swimming up on prey from below. In fact, it is rare for me to swim in a straight line!
2) Flamingo: “To be the roughest and toughest around.” When you first look at me you may think pink, but I’m actually one of the toughest animals you’ll ever find. Some of my kind will make nests in areas where virtually nothing lives, like extremely salty areas that contain mud pots boiling from the heat of volcanoes or frozen lakes high up in the mountains where few animals can survive. And talk about tough—I can sometimes fly 400 miles in just one night!
3) Polar Bear: “To spend lots of warm, cuddly quality time with my kids.” Before I give birth, I dig out a sleeping chamber in the Arctic snow—you can actually see a fine example of my work at SeaWorld’s Wild Arctic! My cubs are born November through January in my den. They rest and relax with me until we all emerge from our den in late March or April.
4) Florida Manatee: “To eat all my greens.”If you invited me out to lunch I’d order a salad…a rather large and expensive one. On the average I eat from 32-108 lb. of aquatic plants daily, so you better think twice before taking me out on a lunch or dinner date.
5) Bottlenose Dolphin: “Not to take life so seriously.” All work and no play can be boring, so sometimes you just need to play the day away. Both young and old of my kind chase one another and toss, carry or use objects to solicit interaction with others in our group. In fact, some of us at SeaWorld have been seen playing underwater with bubble rings that we create ourselves by blowing out air from our blowholes.
