Tangalooma’s Wild Dolphin Provisioning Program has achieved a 100 per cent survival rate of bottlenose dolphin calves.

Tangalooma Marine Education and Conservation Centre Director, Mr Trevor Hassard said he was pleased but not surprised with the results.

“From the inception of our program, Tangalooma Resort has been determined to create a sustainable dolphin feeding program and has strongly supported the scientific community and other experts to achieve this goal,” Mr Hassard said.

Co-author of the study and one time Dolphin Care Supervisor Bonnie Holmes said there had been much speculation over the years concerning the benefits of provisioning feeding programs. “Human intervention in the lives of wild animals should always be something we question,” Ms Holmes said.

“However, since working with the program and conducting additional research, I have come to understand that Tangalooma’s management arrangements for the program have been thoroughly researched over the past 16 years, and implemented accordingly.

"I have witnessed the feeding when a mother first brought in her calf, only two days after the birth. Given the bond between mother and calf is so strong, it was unbelievable to see them both so soon after the birth, indicating that the mother must have felt safe bringing her calf to the provisioning program.”

Tangalooma’s dolphin feeding provisioning program is conducted each evening with over eight regular dolphins participating in the program.