Coming up for air
Steve Dawson, University of Otago
By Alice Klein
Not just a pretty face? A dolphin
has learned to breathe through its mouth after developing a faulty blowhole,
highlighting the animal’s ability to adapt.
The adult Hector’s dolphin
(Cephalorhynchus hectori) was discovered in January 2014 off the coast of
Christchurch in New Zealand.
Steve
Dawson at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, and
his colleagues were studying the endangered species as part of a long-term
conservation project, when they noticed unusual behaviour in one member of a
group of seven.
Each time the dolphin surfaced,
it approached at a steep angle and lifted its head higher out of the water than
normal. The blowhole stayed shut while its mouth opened wide and made a sound
consistent with sucking in air.
Dolphins were not thought to be
able to breathe through their mouths. To do this, a dolphin would need to move
its larynx from the usual position to allow the respiratory and digestive
tracts to communicate, says Dawson.
The animal probably learned to do
this after its blowhole
became blocked by a foreign object or injury, or because the
muscles around it didn’t work properly, he says. “We think this dolphin
has found a workaround to what is most likely a pathological problem.”
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