After finishing Blue’s examination, Dr. Linnehan and her colleagues trudged again up the hill to their places of work, the chatter of dolphins and sea lions fading behind them. However even indoors, it was unimaginable to flee the animals’ presence: There have been photographs of dolphins, dolphin cartoons and a plushy toy sea lion. Anatomical fashions of dolphins sat on quite a few desks.
The laboratory, situated only a quick stroll away, is often bustling after the animals’ morning medical checks, as technicians course of any lately collected blood, urine, fecal or different samples. Later, the samples are saved in a small, windowless room throughout the road, the place supercold freezers comprise a marine-mammal biobank that dates again a long time. “We’ve obtained animals right here of their 50s,” Dr. Xitco mentioned. “All their well being information are upstairs, and their tissue samples are throughout the road. It’s simply an incredible useful resource.”
This biobank has made it attainable for scientists to do longitudinal research, charting, as an example, how dolphins’ blood chemistry adjustments as they age. And the massive, well-trained animal inhabitants allowed the Navy to pioneer new medical methods, akin to transportable ultrasounds for dolphins. Dr. Sam Ridgway, who was this system’s first veterinarian and continued to publish new analysis till his dying final yr, grew to become often called the daddy of marine mammal medication. Up to now, analysis on the Navy’s animals has yielded greater than 1,200 scientific papers, convention shows and e-book chapters, Navy officers mentioned.
“No query they’ve been a pacesetter by way of growing our understanding of dolphin medication,” mentioned Randy Wells, who directs the Chicago Zoological Society’s Sarasota Dolphin Analysis Program. (Dr. Wells ceaselessly collaborates with this system’s researchers and has additionally obtained funding from the Navy.)
After their morning exams, the animals have coaching or enrichment classes, typically within the open ocean, the place their athleticism is on clear show. The dolphins swim alongside boats, retrieve brightly coloured balls, launch themselves into the air, slip beneath the water’s floor and reappear in a flash.
Dolphin day afternoon
However they do gradual with age, Dr. Jensen mentioned. Their power ranges flag, their joints stiffen and so they placed on some additional kilos. Some develop coronary heart illness, kidney stones or imaginative and prescient issues, which might require surgical intervention.
Just a few hours after analyzing Blue, Dr. Linnehan joined her colleagues on the Marine Mammal Surgical Middle to speak via some upcoming cataract surgical procedures for sea lions. The group has grow to be extra proactive, mentioned Dr. Jenny Meegan, a senior veterinarian on the Nationwide Marine Mammal Basis. The veterinarians now carry out cataract surgical procedure earlier than the animals’ imaginative and prescient deteriorates considerably, she mentioned, and are learning new diets that they hope will stop dolphins from growing kidney stones.
