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Killer Dolphins

Baffle marine experts. I don’t know why. They’ve been telling us for decades they’re intelligent, just like humans. Maybe even superior to humans. What did they think? That meant they were going to be like happy, kite-flying, Kumbayah-singing hippy humans? UK Telegraph:

New evidence has been compiled by marine scientists that prove the normally placid dolphin is capable of brutal attacks both on innocent fellow marine mammals and, more disturbingly, on its own kind.

Film taken of gangs of dolphins repeatedly ramming baby porpoises, tossing them in the air and pursuing them to the death has solved a long-term mystery of what causes the death of so many of these harmless mammals - but has left animal experts baffled as to the motive.

Another mystery is that the animal ‘murders’ have only been reported in two parts of the world - along Scotland’s East Coast and in America off the beaches of Virginia, where even more alarmingly, the victims were scores of the dolphins’ own young.

The first clues to solving the riddle came in 1997 when, by coincidence, marine biologists in Virginia were finding young, dead dolphins with horrific internal injuries at the same time as young porpoises were washing up on Scotland’s north-east coast with identical causes of death. The body count was growing in both locations.

The two groups of biologists pooled information and, at first, it was believed the mammals had died through ‘blast trauma’. In American cases, this was supposedly from exercises by the US Navy, and in Scotland from air guns used by oil rig technicians to detect undersea caverns.

This theory was dismissed after further examination of the mammals’ bodies revealed the injuries - broken ribs, imploding lungs, damaged livers and massive internal bleeding - could only have come from prolonged, focused attacks.

When tell-tale teeth-marks were identified, the dolphin - the mammal classified as one of the world’s most intelligent, sensitive and sociable creatures - became the official suspect.

Confirmation of the murders came by way of two shocking films shot by holidaymakers.

…

“The blows are carefully targeted,” says Dr Wilson, who is a member of the Scottish Association for Marine Science. “And the attacks are sustained, sometimes up to 30 minutes.

“The film was a key piece of evidence. It crystalised our suspicions. We realised the dolphins’ victim was trying to escape from being attacked with such force that any one single blow could kill it.

“It was, Oh my God!, the animals I’ve been studying for the last 10 years are killing these porpoises.”

If they were hippy dolphins, this would be the Manson family. But it sounds more like a turf war. Ethnic cleansing. Inter-species genocide. Jangja-whale.

Just wait. One of these days, one of those dolphins at one of those swim-with-dolphins places is going to wake up on the wrong side of the kelp bed.

Meanwhile,

… as the experts of the Cetacean Research and Rescue Unit are forced to declare: “These killings represent yet another example of the hard brutality and evolutionary pressures of the marine world.”

So they’re just like humans after all. It will be interesting to see if that aha moment leads to any adjustment in the save-the-whale crowd’s “why do they hate us” view of the motivations of certain genocidal killer humans.

Topics: science

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 10:22 am on Saturday, January 26, 2008

10 Responses to “Killer Dolphins”

1. The_Real_JeffS Says:
   January 26th, 2008 at 11:21 am

   Will Greenpeace protest the porpoises killing each other? Or should someone call MoveOn.org? Oh, the humanity!

2. RebeccaH Says:
   January 26th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

   Just wait. One of these days, one of those dolphins at one of those swim-with-dolphins places is going to wake up on the wrong side of the kelp bed.

   This has already happened. There are Youtube clips (sorry, don’t have a link) of dolphin attacks on people who got in a pool with them, and I believe the same clips were shown in one of those “When Animals Attack” things on cable. Dolphins are big, wild animals, and only a hopeless romantic would think of them as puppy dogs with fins.

3. heather Says:
   January 26th, 2008 at 1:37 pm

   gosh. to think that there is no absolute kindliness anywhere on this earth?? What a SURPRISE!

   I have read awhile back, about female porpoises being gang raped by a group of male porpoises. And then, there is the recent finding that the calm and loving orang utangs form up in gangs to go after other orang utangs….

   Rousseau. Disney. Why have they misled us sensitive caring souls anyway???

4. Layer Seven Says:
   January 26th, 2008 at 2:24 pm

   Dolphins may be smarter than us . . . but it sounds like they have a religion of peace, too.

5. Worldview - Blog Archive » Worldview Web Roundup Says:
   January 26th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

   [...] Jules Crittenden [...]

6. Robert Says:
   January 26th, 2008 at 2:38 pm

   “One of these days, one of those dolphins at one of those swim-with-dolphins places is going to wake up on the wrong side of the kelp bed.”

   I believe that such has already happened. It, of course, does not serve the interest of the promoters of these side shows to publicize such things. I have also read that male dolphins have behaved in very un-feminist ways towards some female humans, particularly during certain phases of the moon.

7. GHS159 Says:
   January 26th, 2008 at 9:50 pm

   You think this is bad? Just wait until one of those Killer Whales gets pissed off.

8. Dave Surls Says:
   January 26th, 2008 at 11:20 pm

   “New evidence has been compiled by marine scientists that prove the normally placid dolphin is capable of brutal attacks both on innocent fellow marine mammals and, more disturbingly, on its own kind.”

   You think that’s bad. They catch innocent fish and eat them alive every single day.

   Nasty boys, those dolphins.

9. DemocracyRules Says:
   January 28th, 2008 at 12:10 am

   YES, Killer Whales do kill people. There are documented reports of such murders. The most famous one I can recall happened in Victoria, B.C., Canada, where a killer whale knowingly and deliberately pressed a handler against the side of the pool, crushing her to death.

   As for dolphins and porpoises, this should not come as a surprise to ethologists. These are the scientists who study animal social behaviors. The rule of thumb is that after 20,000 hours of observation, it will become clear to the ethologist that the species in question is fully capable of murder.

   Species which have not been observed to deliberately and gratuitously kill have simply not been observed for long enough.

   And yes, among many species, especially primates, war is common.

10. Dave Surls Says:
    January 28th, 2008 at 1:15 am

    “Species which have not been observed to deliberately and gratuitously kill have simply not been observed for long enough.”

    Most plant species are pretty peaceful.

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