Marineland (Antibes)
Encyclopedia
Marineland is an animal exhibition park in Antibes
, France
. It was founded in 1970 by Roland de la Poype
. First, it was a small oceanarium with a few pools and animals but now it is one of the biggest in the world and receives more than 1,200,000 visitors per year. It is the only French sea park featuring two cetacean species: killer whales and dolphins.
On July 25, 2006, the park was sold to the Spanish amusement park group Parques Reunidos for about 75 million Euros. Parques Reunidos also operates L'Oceanografic
in Valencia on the Spanish mainland.
Antibes
Antibes is a resort town in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France.It lies on the Mediterranean in the Côte d'Azur, located between Cannes and Nice. The town of Juan-les-Pins is within the commune of Antibes...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. It was founded in 1970 by Roland de la Poype
Roland de la Poype
Roland Paulze d'Ivoy de la Poype is a World War II fighter ace, member of the Normandie-Niemen fighter group that fought on the Soviet front...
. First, it was a small oceanarium with a few pools and animals but now it is one of the biggest in the world and receives more than 1,200,000 visitors per year. It is the only French sea park featuring two cetacean species: killer whales and dolphins.
On July 25, 2006, the park was sold to the Spanish amusement park group Parques Reunidos for about 75 million Euros. Parques Reunidos also operates L'Oceanografic
L'Oceanogràfic
The Oceanographic is a marine park situated in the east of the city of Valencia, Spain, where different marine habitats are represented. It was designed by the architect Felix Candela and the structural engineers Alberto Domingo and Carlos Lazaro...
in Valencia on the Spanish mainland.
Animal exhibits
- Killer whale show: the largest tank in the world performing in eleven million gallons of water, with a panoramic glass wall 64 metres long where the spectacular power of these mammals weighing several metric tons rivals the gentle complicity binding the whales with their trainers. Marineland holds five orcas: Freya, Valentin, Inouk, Wikie and Moana, her calf, born in March 2011.
- Dolphin show: Marineland’s family of bottlenose dolphins deploy all their charms: speed, accuracy, agility and complete trust in their trainers.
- Les Coulisses de l'apprentissage (sea lion show): A live demonstration of the learning techniques used with all the mammals in the park, in which the sealPinnipedPinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...
and sea lionSea LionSea lions are pinnipeds characterized by external ear-flaps, long fore-flippers, the ability to walk on all fours, and short thick hair. Together with the fur seal, they comprise the family Otariidae, or eared seals. There are six extant and one extinct species in five genera...
trainers disclose some of the "ropes" for preparing the show, the better to understand the basis of the relationship between humans and animals.
- The shark tunnel: Thanks to a 30-metre-long tunnel through a huge aquarium containing nearly 2 million litres of water, visitors are literally surrounded by sharkSharkSharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....
s and manta rays swimming around them.
- Life under the sea (The tropical aquarium gallery and The touch pool): The tropical aquarium gallery is a temple to the world of coral reefs, with very different vo-lumes represented and the touch pool is a chance to caress skates and rays - fish that literally "fly" in the water - with your finger-tips.
- Pinnipeds: beaches featuring California sea lions, South American sea lions, black seals and grey seals.
- Aquatic birds: beaches featuring penguins, pelicans and flamingos.
- Meeting with dolphins: Each session lasts approximately 1 hour, to discover the biology and ecology of dolphins, before approaching the dolphins for 20 mn under close supervision by trainers on a sunken deck.
- On October 21, 2009, it was announced that the celebrity handreared German polar bearPolar BearThe polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...
FlockeFlockeFlocke is a female polar bear who was born in captivity at the Nuremberg Zoo in Nuremberg, Germany on 11 December 2007. A few weeks after her birth, she was removed from her mother's care after concerns were raised for her safety. Although the zoo had established a strict non-interference policy...
, from Nuremberg zooTiergarten NürnbergNuremberg Zoo is a zoo located in the Nuremberg Reichswald , southeast of Nuremberg, Germany. With an area of , approximately 300 animal species are kept by the zoo.- In the Middle Ages :...
, would move to the park with her Russian polar bear companion, Rasputin, in early 2010.