New Study, Dolphins Can
Detect Electric Fields

2011

The common Guiana dolphin has just divulged its sixth sense:
the ability to sense electric fields.

It is the first placental mammal known to pull off this
trick, new research finds.

The dolphin, which bears live young like other placental mammals,
most likely uses its sixth sense to find prey in the murky coastal
waters it inhabits.

"Most of the animals which do this do this to find prey," said
study researcher Wolf Hanke, of Rostock University in Rostock,
Germany. "All of the dolphins' prey items, like crayfish, all of
them generate electric fields to some degree."

The Guiana dolphin looks like the familiar bottlenose dolphin; it
is only slightly smaller. It lives close to estuaries, inlets and
other protected shallow waters off the north and eastern coasts of South America.

The researchers examined a Guiana dolphin that had died naturally
at the Dolphinariumin Münster, Germany. They focused on specialized
pores called vibrissal crypts, which in other animals are located in
hair follicles at the bottoms of their whiskers, allowing the animals
to sense movement using their whiskers. Through evolution, the dolphins
have lost their whiskers, but kept the pores.

They found that the specialized pores — which usually number from two
to 10 along the dolphin's snout — are surrounded by nerve endings,
have simplified blood vessels and are filled with a special matrix
of proteins and cells. The pores also produce a gel-like substance.

To see if these pores react to electric fields, the researchers
performed some tests on a live dolphin from the facility.
They trained it to react to electric fields by giving it a treat when
it correctly sensed the field or lack of field. They tested different
strengths of fields; the animal sensed the field correctly most of the
time at a very low level — 5 microvolts per centimeter — lower than
the level produced by a typical electric fish.

No other "true" placental mammal is known to have developed the ability
to sense electric fields. Two members of the monotremes, a strange group
of mammals that lays eggs (which includes the platypus), have also developed
this ability. The quirky platypus and its cousin the echidnas (spiny anteaters)
are semiaquatic and evolved the ability separately from the dolphins.
It's possible other marine mammals also developed the ability, Hanke said.
"I think it's possible, it's likely, because there are some dolphins, like
the bottlenose, that have little pits on its snout, too. They are smaller, but
it's not unlikely that this one or other ones would develop it too," he said.

The electroreception would be used in short-range scenarios, when the dolphins'
echolocation (ability to determine the environment around them using sounds and
their echoes) becomes less sensitive. These waters are murky, so visibility is
limited even at these short ranges, so being able to electrically sense their
prey would help these dolphins feed.

SeaWorld prepares to get back in the water with its killer whales

USA 2011

SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment is preparing to put trainers back in the water with its killer whales for the first time since a trainer was battered and drowned by the company's largest orca one year ago today.

SeaWorld told the Orlando Sentinel on Wednesday that trainers in its three U.S. marine parks will begin limited "water work" with whales within the next few months, with the interactions initially restricted to small medical pools equipped with false-bottom floors that can be lifted out of the water.

The company said it also will spend tens of millions of dollars in coming months on safety upgrades at its killer-whale facilities in Orlando, San Diego and San Antonio — from custom-designed, fast-rising pool floors in its larger show venues to underwater vehicles that could be used to distract an out-of-control killer whale with pulsing lights and whale vocalizations.

Company officials said they intend to proceed slowly and have not decided when — or even if— trainers might once again go back into the water with killer whales during public shows. SeaWorld trainers have not been permitted in the water with the whales since veteran SeaWorld Orlando trainer Dawn Brancheau was killed by a 6-ton orca named Tilikum on Feb. 24, 2010.

Campaign launched to close down German dolphinarium

Germany 2010

Palawas, Nando, Kite and Rocco. Those are the given names to four bottlenose dolphins who are currently performing at the dolphinarium in Münster, Germany. Built in 1974 as part of the local zoo, the dolphinarium remains one of the last three of its kind in Germany. From the original nine facilities keeping dolphins in captivity, only Nürnberg, Duisburg and Münster are still blocking and ignoring concerns of animal welfare groups, conservationists, politicians and the public. Arne Feuerhahn and Christine Bindal, both co-founders of the new ocean activist group The Black Fish recently moved to Münster to get an impression of the situation in the Westphalian city. "Our aim is to shut this facility down as quickly as possible. Public education and constant pressure are our main strategies to get our four aquatic friends out of the miserable and unworthy conditions they live in".

The campaign started a week ago with a screening of the Oscar-winning documentary 'The Cove'. The film exposes the yearly slaughter of dolphins in a blocked-off cove in Taji, Japan. Many of the dolphins caught at Taji end up in dolphinariums worldwide. During the event the connection between the dolphin slaughter in Taiji, the worldwide dolphin entertainment industry and facilities such as here in Münster were discussed and many people joined to support The Black Fish campaign. Attending the dolphinarium regularly to educate zoo visitors and passers-by, the campaign crew hopes that the citizens of Münster realise the horrible situation that the four cetaceans are in and the need to take action.

"We believe it is quite important to unveil the problems of cetaceans in captivity. In the end the citizens of Münster should identify themselves with the closing. No one should support or tolerate these places that make money out of the suffering of animals". The feedback was surprisingly positive - it seems no one in Münster still wants this facility and many people show compassion for the animals.

Last weekend Christine Bindal and Arne Feuerhahn made their way to the city of Husum in Schleswig Holstein to discuss the situation with conservationist and former 'Flipper' trainer Ric O'Barry. Mr. O'Barry welcomed the actions and offered his full support to help the animals when the dolphinarium shuts down.

Seeing these dolphins in tiny concrete enclosures is a disturbing sight. The dolphinarium in Münster offers a main pool of some 200 m³ size which has to be shared with six Californian sea lions. The water is treated with chemicals and the feed of dead fish is served with drugs to keep the animals healthy and able to perform. "These drugs they receive are blocking diseases that would occur most likely under such stressful conditions. The dolphins are regularly exposed to unnatural sounds like loud music, clapping and screaming of the audience. They perform tricks to receive a little bit of dead fish. That's the only reason for their cooperation – food. There is no fun involved for the animals whatsoever."

The Black Fish will step up its efforts to retire the dolphinarium in Münster in the coming weeks. For our intentions we already received overwhelming support from Ric O'Barry, the Humane Society International, world-class underwater photographer Eric Cheng and most important; lots of local citizens. With their help we are confident and determined to get Nando, Palawas, Rocco and Kite out. To be continued...

'Dolphin Discovery’ ends its long run at SeaWorld

Seaworld San Diego 2009

The longest-running dolphin show in SeaWorld's history ended this weekend.

“Dolphin Discovery,” which debuted in 1996, featured bottlenose dolphins, pilot whales, bits of comedy and families picked from the audience. It was performed several times each day.

SeaWorld shuttered the show yesterday to remake Dolphin Stadium and introduce a new feature, “Blue Horizons,” slated to open in May.

“Blue Horizons,” which uses dolphins, exotic birds and aerialists, has been a hit at the SeaWorld in Orlando, Fla., since 2005, park officials said.

The planned changes to Dolphin Stadium include 700 additional seats and a new sound system.

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The Bottlenosed Dolphins and Pilot Whales moved to the Killer Whale exhbitis temporarily during the building of the Blue Horizons set.

Dolphins and Pilot Whales on the 'Shamucam'

Old Beluga/Commerson's Dolphin Exhibit burns down.

Zoo Duisburg 2009

The shedd of the old exhibit that used to house Beluga Whales and Commer sons dolphin caught fire of unknown reason. The cause could be lightning, No animals were harmed since that part of the zoo has been deserted since a few years.

Bolivian River Dolpin is new species

Bolivia 2008

The Bolivian river dolphin is a separate species from the Amazon river dolphin, scientists announced recently.

Thousands of years ago a powerful drought dried up Brazil's Madeira River, causing a "radical separation" as dolphin populations were caught on different sides of the newly created rapids, said researcher Manuel Ruiz-Garcia.

The Madeira split into today's Beni and Mamoré rivers of northeastern Bolivia. (See a Bolivia map.)

"When they separated, [the dolphins] were never again able to return and reproduce," said Ruiz-Garcia, who heads the Molecular Genetics Lab at Javeriana University in Bogotá, Colombia.

"Thus isolated, the Bolivian river dolphin, Inia boliviensis, eventually developed," he said.

The announcement was made at a recent conservation workshop in Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia.

Ruiz-Garcia took DNA samples from 40 river dolphins from Bolivia and 56 from Colombia by extracting tissue from their tail muscles.

A limited comparison of the DNA revealed significant genetic differences between the two river-dolphin populations.

This led Ruiz-Garcia to initially estimate that the species separated five to six million years ago.

But after comparing 32 more genes from DNA in another 40 Bolivian dolphins and about 60 Colombian and Peruvian dolphins, he concluded that the separation happened much sooner—about 100,000 to 500,000 years ago.

"Bolivian dolphins are totally different molecularly from other dolphins," Ruiz-Garcia said. "After being split up, they accumulated mutations and formed a new species."

Bolivian river dolphins—especially females—also look different from their Amazon relatives.

In contrast to Amazon river dolphins, which are considered "pink," the members of this new species are a pale gray. They also have more teeth, smaller heads, and smaller bodies.

Ruiz-Garcia also considers the Bolivian species to be chubbier and rounder.

The latest genetic studies on the newly declared species allow "a very clear reconstruction of evolutionary history," said Fernando Trujillo, scientific director of Colombia's Fundación Omacha and the leader of South America's first river-dolphin census in 2007.