US Navy strapped cameras on dolphins and got interesting results

Humans are terrestrial and by extension, have limits of how fast they can swim in water. So what do we do if we want to feel the smoothness with whicgh marine animals swim? Put a camera or something on them probably. But this was not the sole purpose when US Navy put cameras on some of dolphins and let them swim in open ocean. The intent was to observe their feeding habits.

For this study, six bottlenose dolphins were selected from US National Marine Mammal Foundation (NMMF). Cameras were strapped on these dolphins and they were observed for six months. The dolphins were given free reign to hunt in San Diego Bay.

The footage revealed some exciting things. The dolphins were giving long chase to hunt their prey and were even targetting venomous snakes.

These dolphins from NMMF were indeed dolphins in captivity but they were used to hunting in the open sea. It was hence considered that their hunting instincts were similar to their wild counterparts in open ocean.

The findings have been published by the researchers in journal PLOS One.

"As dolphins hunted, they clicked almost constantly at intervals of 20 to 50 milliseconds," write the researchers.

"On approaching prey, click intervals shorten into a terminal buzz and then a squeal. On contact with fish, buzzing and squealing was almost constant until after the fish was swallowed."

"These dolphins appeared to use both sight and sound to find prey," researchers say further.

"At distance, the dolphins always used echolocation to find fish. Up close, vision and echolocation appeared to be used together."

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