Footage from GoPro attached to wild dolphins reveals they aren't as adorable as we thought
Footage from a GoPro that was attached to wild dolphins has revealed that they aren’t as adorable as we might have once thought.
Dolphins are probably one of the most beloved aquatic mammals, with their adorable and docile nature. However, all might not be as it seems.
New footage has revealed that the animals may have a darker side after a team of scientists attached GoPro cameras to six bottlenose dolphins to track their behavior.
The dolphins swam freely as the experts observed how the animals behave as they search for their food.
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But these weren’t just any old dolphins - they had actually been trained by the US Navy to be able to locate and mark underwater mines.
The late Sam Ridgway was the lead author of the study who headed up the Marine Mammal Program in the Navy and was dubbed the ‘father of marine mammal medicine’ due to his work in the field.
Before his death three years ago, the so-called ‘Dolphin Doctor’ shared the remarkable findings his team made while reviewing the GoPro footage of the creatures finding their next meals.
Between the six of them, they managed to consume hundreds of fish while out for a swim, as well as some other bizarre cuisine - venomous sea snakes - but it was the way they did it which really wowed the experts.
Audio captured by Ridgway and his team found that the dolphins would pinpoint their prey with sonar clicks, before letting out squeals of victory when they finally got something in their mouth.
Scientists previously thought that when dining on the ocean’s offerings, dolphins would rush towards their target in an approach known as ‘ram raiding’, before gobbling them up.
But the GoPro footage showed that these bottlenose dolphins actually used suction to get a meal into their mouth. They’re able to do this by expanding their throats and flaring their lips.
This part of the footage is the bit which might ruin the illusion of them being extremely cute, though, as watching them gleefully suck up fish is a little bit unnerving to say the least.
What really shocked the scientists was how easily one of the dolphins put away eight yellow-bellied sea snakes, which are described as ‘highly venomous, but also unpleasant and possibly even toxic to ingest’ by the Australian Museum.
After pouncing on the sea snake, the footage shows how the dolphin triumphantly jerked its head before letting out a high-pitched ‘victory squeal’.
Detailing the sounds that the dolphins made as well as their behavior as they approached prey, the researchers wrote: “Searching dolphins clicked at intervals of 20 to 50 ms.
“On approaching prey, click intervals shorten into a terminal buzz and then a squeal. Squeals were bursts of clicks that varied in duration, peak frequency, and amplitude.
“Squeals continued as the dolphin seized, manipulated and swallowed the prey. If fish escaped, the dolphin continued the chase and sonar clicks were heard less often than the continuous terminal buzz and squeal.”