Common Bottlenose Dolphin

Common Bottlenose Dolphin is grey in color. The Bottlenose Dolphin has more flexible neck than any other dolphins due to five of their seven vertebrae not being fused together as is seen in other dolphin species.

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Dolphins Affected by BP Oil Spill in Grave Health Situation

The year was 2010. The world saw one of history’s worst oil spills, wreaking havoc on all sorts of marine animals in the US gulf coast and to this day, causing problems in the region.

A study conducted over the years that followed the spill shows that dolphins affected by the BP oil spill are now plagued with a host of severe health problems. Close to half of the 32 dolphins observed from Louisiana's Barataria Bay in 2011 were discovered to be in grave condition, this according to the study spearheaded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and recently published in the journal, Environmental Science and Technology.

Around 17 percent of the observed dolphin population were categorized as being in grave condition and likely to expire from poor health. A team scientists and researchers from the government, academic and private sector, conducted the study a year after the oil spill as part of the Natural Resource Damage Assessment (NRDA).

According to government estimates, the disastrous Deepwater Horizon spill churned out at least 4 million barrels of oil into the Barataria Bay in the Gulf of Mexico.

Among the health problems found in the Louisiana dolphins include extreme lung disease and low levels of adrenal stress-response hormones. One-fourth of the dolphins were also malnourished. Overall, researchers report most of the diseases observed in the Barataria Bay dolphins are rare but have been observed in dolphins exposed to oil and toxicity.

More about this story on Discovery News.

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Marine Mammal: Bottlenose Dolphin

No surprise here: the bottlenose dolphin is typically thought of as the most intelligent non-human animal after the chimp and bonobo, and the more research we do, the more impressive dolphins become. They've been known to teach each other games and tricks, like walking on their tails or blowing bubble rings; they can use tools (dolphins off the coast of Australia learned to keep sponges over their noses to protect themselves from spiny but delicious urchins); they've been trained by the navy; they've been proven to understand at least some elements of the concept of numbers. However, it's difficult to measure the dolphin's intelligence due to its capabilities as a mimic. Is it learning, or copying? Who knows?

Source: Here

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Die-off of bottlenose dolphins, linked to virus, is worst in 25 years

A widespread die-off of bottlenose dolphins off the Mid-Atlantic Coast — the worst of its kind in more than a quarter-century — almost certainly is the work of a virus that killed more than 740 dolphins in the same region in 1987 and 1988, marine scientists said Tuesday.

Since the beginning of July, 357 dead or dying dolphins have washed ashore from New York to North Carolina — 186 of them in Virginia. Authorities have received numerous additional reports of carcasses floating in the ocean, said Teri Rowles, director of the marine mammal health and stranding response program for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries service. The actual number of deaths is certainly greater, she said.

Source: Here

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