Nature World Today

Nature's Best Site

Dolphins Plan Their Dives, Study Reports

by 49 Comments

As new research in the Journal of Experimental Biology suggests, dolphins carefully plan their hunting dives to make sure they do not run out of oxygen while exploring the ocean’s depth. While dolphins are incredibly resilient creatures, they need to carefully plan their oxygen levels when going on hunts. That is because, if they are not careful they can easily drown while on the hunt.

Scientists have long wondered how dolphins are able to know how much oxygen they need while diving. In the new study, researchers from the University of La Laguna shed light on the mystery by revealing that the mammals use information from previous dives to know how far down to go.

The team used small recorders to analyze the locations and vocalizations of 37 Risso’s dolphins as they hunted for food. They then made note of the sounds the mammals made while hunting. The noises — known as buzzes — are much faster than the sounds dolphins make while attempting to catch prey.

Editorial content

This showed that the dolphins began to echolocate as soon as they left the surface. In addition, once the dolphins found success hunting at a certain depth they would change the frequency of their clicks to indicate that they should return there during future dives.

Researcher believe such behavior is “probably to gain information on the depth distribution and availability of prey and to respond swiftly to rapid changes in habitat structure at different depths,” said lead author Patricia Arranz, a researcher at the University of La Laguna, in a statement.

The study also showed that the dolphins would continue to echolocate as they came back up to the surface. That behavior would continue whether they were hunting or not. As a result, they likely exhibit such traits as a way to plan ahead and search for the location of their next hunt.

“Information about prey, learned throughout the dive, was used to plan foraging in the next dive,” the team wrote in their research, according to Tech Times “Our results demonstrate that planning for future dives is modulated by spatial memory derived from multi-modal prey sampling (echoic, visual and capture) during earlier dives.”

This sheds light on dolphin behavior and gives insight into a never before seen characteristic. The team plans to next look at other marine mammals to see if they have similar practices.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  2. 325039 939963Hello Guru, what entice you to post an article. This post was very intriguing, specially since I was searching for thoughts on this topic last Thursday. 162136

  8. 451918 115830I discovered your blog web site on google and check a few of your early posts. Proceed to maintain up the superb operate. I just extra up your RSS feed to my MSN News Reader. In search of ahead to studying extra from you in a although! 514060

  9. 912466 631252This write-up is quite appealing to thinking individuals like me. It is not only thought-provoking, it draws you in from the beginning. This is well-written content. The views here are also appealing to me. Thank you. 966013

  14. 643665 4904Keep up the great piece of function, I read few posts on this internet site and I feel that your blog is genuinely intriguing and holds bands of great data. 473562

  15. 386415 115357Do you mind if I quote a couple of your posts as long as I provide credit and sources back to your site? My weblog is in the exact same area of interest as yours and my visitors would truly benefit from some with the information you offer here. Please let me know if this ok with you. Thanks! 362765

  16. 935151 944509Can I just now say that of a relief to locate somebody who truly knows what theyre speaking about online. You actually know how to bring a difficulty to light and function out it crucial. The diet need to have to see this and appreciate this side on the story. I cant believe youre no much more popular since you undoubtedly possess the gift. 122755

  30. 908624 816569You produced some decent points there. I looked over the internet for your concern and discovered many people will go along with together along with your web site. 621630

  38. 961655 681491Hello. fantastic job. I did not anticipate this. This is a fantastic story. Thanks! You created certain fine points there. I did a search on the subject matter and located the majority of folks will have the same opinion with your blog. 533376

  48. 795938 969620You produced some decent points there. I looked online for your problem and located a lot of people will go together with with the site. 814739

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.