The scientist’s research:
Until now dolphins have only ever been documented and captured playing with sea snakes and other sea creatures hence releasing them but never eating them.
The dolphin attacks and subsequent snake-based snacks have astonished scientists since consuming this kind of venomous snake can be dangerous and fatal for marine mammals because these venomous snakes can have neurotoxic effects.
The research involved scientists from the National Marine Mammal Foundation in San Diego, California, attaching a waterproof, live-stream camera to a pair of bottlenose dolphins, which the US Navy had trained to locate underwater mines via their sonar calls.
It’s also worth noting that the dolphins were off the clock during their video project, but the scientists wanted to see GoPro footage of them hunting fish.
Dolphins Eating the Snakes:
One of the dolphins went off the menu and opted for a meal that the scientists hadn’t anticipated and expected.
The dolphin catches the first yellow-bellied sea snake, carrying it for a while, then jerking its head repeatedly to swallow the slithery prey.
It then emits a high-pitched noise that scientists claimed to be a ‘victory squeal’, according to the study.
The scientists wrote: “The dolphin clicked as it approached the snake and then sucked it in with a bit more head jerking as the flopping snake tail disappeared and the dolphin made a long squeal.”
The sea snake was visible on the camera for a very short time before the dolphin snatches it up.
The researchers initially questioned their findings, searching for other sea creatures that might look like sea snakes, thinking that there might be other sea organisms that looked like these yellow-bellied snakes but found no alternative explanation.
About the fatal snakes:
Dr. Barb Linnehan, director of medicine at the National Marine Mammal Foundation, said in an email statement to Insider: “I’ve read that other large vertebrates rarely prey on the yellow-bellied sea snake. There are reports of leopard seals eating and then regurgitating them.
According to the research, This snake does have the potential to cause neurotoxicity after ingestion and its venom is considered fairly dangerous. The stomach-of-steel dolphin also showed no signs of illness after eating her snake snacks.
The scientists are astonished:
Scientists are confused and unable to explain why the dolphin went after such risky morsels but suspected that, due to being born in captivity, she would simply never learned not to eat such fatal organisms from their surroundings.
“Perhaps the dolphin’s lack of experience in feeding with dolphin groups in the wild led to the consumption of this outlier prey,” the study authors summarised.
As all the snakes were fairly small, the scientists suspected they were possibly babies and easier to catch, the dolphin had tried to snag and hold a larger snake, but it escaped.
This might explain a few things, as Linnehan explained: “Perhaps because the snakes ingested were thought to be juveniles, they had a lower amount of venom present.”
They are reporting that as the dolphins ingested the young baby snakes so they have a little amount of poison in them hence they didn’t cause any harm to the dolphins.
Audience reaction:
@megan Wolfe “Could be worse they could be eating Tide pods like the tik tokers”
@dave hall “Some say they release endorphins and they get a buzz from the venom”
@matt foye “Absolutely nothing dolphins do surprises me, they are insane”
@eddy Yanez “That explains why they are happy all the time they are getting high”
someone wrote, “Probably just another critter they’re using to get high.”
another person added “The equivalent of eating a hot curry?”
@dag kvello “The dolphin had to resort to that then it’s just natural. Survival and all that jazz “
“Clearly not venomous to them and are tasty”
Final note:
A Navy-trained dolphin hunted and devoured eight venomous sea snakes in a single day, the first time scientists have documented such behavior but apparently, the snakes haven’t been fatal to the dolphins.
