7 unpleasant facts about dolphins that will change your attitude to them
Dolphins are smart and beautiful inhabitants of the ocean, who are loved like children. so do adults. But, despite this, they still remain animals and idealizing them is not only stupid, but also dangerous. Stories about how dolphins saved people after shipwrecks are stories, it is impossible to confirm the truthfulness of which. But there are plenty of examples of situations when dolphins injured and even killed people. What is hidden behind the image of a smiling and friendly marine inhabitant imposed on us?
Let's start with the fact that dolphins, after all, are predators and have a full set of habits inherent in animals with a similar type of food. They are brave, cunning and merciless both to their relatives and, in some cases, to people. Zoologists suggest considering seven features that everyone who is touched by these marine mammals should know.
Dr. Ben Wilson from the University of Aberdeen and Dr. Harry Ross from the Scottish Agricultural College, from 1991 to 1993, studied the corpses of dolphins off the north-east coast of Scotland. An impartial scientific report of the researchers stated that some of the dead dolphins have obvious bite marks and deep scratches on their bodies.
After studying these traces, scientists came to the conclusion that they could only be left by the teeth of relatives of dead animals. They refuted a theory that allowed almost all dolphin deaths to be attributed to damage caused by propellers or injuries sustained from fishing nets and trawls. Of the 105 animal corpses studied, 42 had serious injuries caused by other dolphins.
We can confidently say that dolphins do not pose a mortal danger to humans only because of their size and diet. Large killer whales belonging to the dolphin family are not averse to eating human flesh if there is no other food nearby.
A dolphin can cause a serious injury to a person. There are several cases when these animals have bitten people during feeding. Most likely, they simply confused the outstretched hand with a live fish, but this is just a guess. The most famous case occurred at the SeaWorld amusement park, in Florida, USA. There, a dolphin bit the hand of a girl who was feeding him, causing a non-dangerous, but painful injury.
Eight-year-old Gillian Thomas was feeding a dolphin fish from a paper bag, standing next to her parents. At one point, the child abruptly raised his hand and the dolphin bit into her forearm with his teeth. We can say that everything went well, because in 1994, in one of the Asian dolphinariums, an animal named Tyao attacked a person and caused injuries to him, which later became the cause of death.
In the sea, dolphins can also attack a person. For a flock of fish hunting for a shoal, a person in a wetsuit looks like a competitor and dolphins can start pushing him away from the prey, and very rudely. Needless to say, such an attack is very dangerous for a swimmer.
Since ancient times, there have been stories around the world about how dolphins save drowning people and fight off sharks. Yes, specially trained animals can help people, but it is better not to expect salvation from wild dolphins. They can swim up to the drowning out of curiosity and even let themselves be grabbed with their hands, but this will not be a salvation. Dolphins are driven by instincts and, having made sure that a person is inedible, they leave him.
In the case when a person drowns, these marine inhabitants can even accelerate the death by playing with a person who has run out of strength. As for protection from sharks, predatory fish and dolphins do not get along, so a flock of dolphins circling around a swimmer scares off bloodthirsty sea killers. But this cannot be called conscious help.
Dolphins are one of the few animals among which you can find homosexual and bisexual relationships. These inhabitants of the seas and oceans are quite sexually active and can show interest not only in their own kind, but also in other animals, objects and even people. A dolphin will not be able to rape a person, but accidentally drown him, during a sexual game-easily.
Scientists have noted that it is customary to rape females in flocks, and sometimes 2-3 males take part in the process. They surround the victim and chase her until she is exhausted. Sometimes the compulsion to have sex lasts for several days or even weeks. Famous marine mammal researcher Georgia Cranmore wrote that dolphins can try to have sex with anything, even with the drainage pipe of the pool.
As it does not sound terrible, but dolphins often kill their babies. In the late 90s, several corpses of newborn animals were found on the beaches of Virginia, which died from bites of adults. Researchers also noted aggression towards cubs when observing flocks of animals in the open sea.
There is only one explanation for this type of murder – after the birth of offspring, the female loses interest in sexual games and completely focuses on taking care of the cub. If he dies, then she becomes active again, and this, unfortunately, is sometimes used by males.
The muzzle of most dolphin species is arranged so that the lower jaw protrudes forward. Because of this, it seems that the animal is smiling benevolently all the time. This is not so – although dolphins can rejoice and be sad, they do not possess human facial expressions. A dolphin attacking a person will also smile sweetly like the one that entertains visitors in the dolphinarium.
Many decades of research conducted in different countries of the world have not been able to prove that dolphins have an outstanding mind. Yes, they can communicate with the help of sounds of different frequencies, they remember and recognize each other, they are well trained and incredibly curious. But with all this, experts cannot call these marine mammals intelligent.
Wolfgang Gewalt, the former director of the Duisburg Zoo, who has been dealing with marine animals of various species for decades, argued that one should not idealize dolphins – they are no smarter than seals and sea lions. In captivity, dolphins are well trained in various tricks and even special skills, and also willingly interact with people, but they still remain animals and are not able to solve logical problems and draw conclusions.
Do not forget that there are many species of dolphins in the world that have certain characteristics. One of them is more friendly and sociable, others are aggressive, and others are absolutely not suitable for training. Therefore, it is possible to talk about the features of these animals, generalizing, only approximately.
Keywords: Sea | Animals | Nature | Ocean | World | Dolphins | Danger | Wildlife | Black dolphin | Tin