mystery

In Scotland's northeast coast many dead porpoises were being washed up to shore. At the same time in Virginia many young, dead dolphins were being found washed up on shore. Many scientists suggest that these animals died of "blast trauma" from the U.S navy and air guns. When they took a closer look at the bodies they found horrible injuries such as broken ribs, imploding lungs, damaged livers and massive internal bleeding. The only way this could have happened is if these animals were attacked. By identifying the teeth marks on the bodies, scientists discovered that the culprit of all these killing are bottle nose dolphins.

No one knows the actual reason why dolphins are killing their young and porpoises. Scientists think that dolphins and porpoises are competing for the same food source but there is no shortage of food. Others say that maybe the porpoises are in the dolphins territory but they were not chased away but pursued to death. Ben Wilson said, "The dolphins and porpoises have similar diets. But that does not explain the ferocity of the interaction. It could be some sort of recognition problem. Dolphins are afraid of big sharks and this could be leading them to attack porpoises." Can that really be the only problem?

In Virgina many young dolphins are found washed up on shore with the same injuries as the porpoises. Many marine biologists think that non related male dolphins are killing these baby dolphins. In the wild if a baby dies, the female dolphins after two weeks are able to mate again. Scientists think that these males are killing the babies so they can then mate with the female and pass down their genes.

Even though dolphins are killing porpoises and their own, please do not think of these animals as cold blooded murderers. Dolphins are intelligent animals who love to interact with human beings. They are friendly, shy and sometimes are big showoffs. We may never know why dolphins are killing their own young and porpoises.