Dolphins are known as one of the smartest critters around, but something they’ve been doing lately has hurt their lovable reputation.
A few years after scientists first noticed adult bottlenose dolphins were bullying manatee calves, there’s still no answers as to what causes some dolphins to behave, well, kinda like jerks.
Orphaned manatee calves were documented with tooth rake marks traced back bottlenose dolphin tooth rakes. The injuries were so severe thatin one of the 10 cases studied by researchers in the Caribbean Sea, the manatee calf died from the injuries inflicted upon it by the dolphins.
“Our findings reveal the occurrence of previously unreported interspecies interactions between adult bottlenose dolphins and Antillean manatee calves. The behaviors we documented in bottlenose dolphins displayed towards manatee calves are similar to behaviors this species exhibits with calves of their own species and of other species. Understanding the drivers of these interactions is important, but often challenging, particularly for elusive marine mammals occurring in regions where research efforts remain limited. However, further investigating the context and potential drivers of these interactions will be critical to advance our understanding their effects on manatee calf survival in this region.”
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