Navy's New Recruits: Sea Lions And Dolphins Trained To Play Video Games - And They Love It

The United States Navy's Marine Mammal Program is making headlines for its latest training venture involving sea lions and dolphins. These adorable marine creatures are being taught how to play video games under the Navy's tutelage in San Diego, California.

The gaming system used for the sea creatures is called "Enclosure Video Enrichment" or EVE, which features a simple maze game that requires the animals to push buttons using their noses or mouths. Spike, one of the sea lions, has been playing the game for three years and is rewarded with a herring for successfully completing a level.

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Moreover, the Navy has rigged a gaming system for dolphins that they can operate from the water. The system features a large screen that is visible from the water and functions better at night, allowing the dolphins to play video games late into the night. The Navy describes the scene as an "eerie pierside movie night," with bottlenose dolphins controlling joysticks with their mouths.

In a press release, Kelley Winship, a scientist with the Navy Marine Mammal Foundation and the principal investigator for the EVE research project, said, “I really care about these animals and the lives they lead. I love all the cool stuff we can look at with this research, but at the end of the day, I want to see them happy and enjoying themselves.”

The researchers have been studying the effects of video games on sea lions, with some sessions even taking place without food as a positive reinforcement.

The sea lions’ weight maintenance and performance in voluntary health checks have shown improvement during the three years of the study, though the research has not definitively linked gaming to these results.

“My favorite part of my job is how multifaceted it is. I find a lot of fulfillment working with animals trained to protect our Sailors and Marines, especially because these animals are so capable and they find their systems tasks so rewarding. And with EVE, I get to work on providing them with additional mental challenge and stimulation with a sole focus on their welfare,” Winship added.

"The EVE system itself is proof of how much we care about marine mammals," the scientist said. "We built them something that nobody else did. We trained them on it, and now we just get to enjoy watching them love video games."

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Image credits: Longjourneys on Shutterstock and United States Navy on Wikipedia