The US Navy runs a program to research marine mammals and employ them for various military tasks. To relax after a tiring workday, the animals are allowed to play.
Is this a joke? No. The US Navy has a marine mammal program and uses it, among other things, to teach sea lions and dolphins to play video games. We’ll get into what’s behind it shortly, but first, you can see Spike the sea lion in action:
Marine has been training marine mammals for years
What is behind it? The United States Navy Marine Mammal Program (NMMP) is based in San Diego and dates back to the 1960s. It serves, among other things, to train marine animals to perform various military tasks.
Thus, the animals can detect and clear underwater mines, recover lost military equipment, and even assist missing divers in safely returning to shore. Additionally, the cute creatures learn to play.
Playing for animal welfare
How does it work? As you could see in the video embedded above, the sea lion Spike – that’s his gamer tag – uses his nose to press buttons and navigate his rudimentary character through a maze.
Spike is capable of tracking the cursor on the screen and pressing the appropriate buttons to reach the goal. If he succeeds, he even does a little dance according to Kotaku. Moreover, there is a herring for successfully completing a level.
Dolphins also don’t miss out on the fun. However, as they can’t just come out of the water to play a round, they have received a special system for underwater gamers.
The system presumably consists of a large screen that can be seen from below the water and works better at night. “What looks like a spooky movie night at the pier are just bottlenose dolphins steering joysticks with their mouths to play late into the night,” it says on the US Navy website.
All of this happens with the aid of a so-called EVE system: That stands for Enclosure Video Enrichment. In German, this means “Behavioral Enrichment,” or simply “Enrichment” and serves to keep animals in captivity entertained and improve their quality of life (via upali.ch).
Yoshi, the dog of the streamer MissMikkaa, probably only has a tired smile left for the sea lion noobs: While they play their simple games, he is already off with his owner in Elden Ring, even taking on fearsome dragons:
Twitch: “Is my dog better than you in Elden Ring?” asks a streamer and shares an astonishing clip
