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Deaf dolphin gives birth
12/06/2007 14:40 - (SA)
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| The dolphin Castaway and her baby calf (right) about an hour after it was born at the Marine Mammal Conservancy in Key Largo, Florida. (Florida Keys News Bureau, AP)
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Key Largo - A stranded, deaf dolphin delivered her calf at a marine mammal rehabilitation centre, and officials hope a dolphin "chat line" they have installed will teach the baby dolphin to vocalise normally.
The Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, named Castaway, has been vocalising to her unnamed calf, but officials at the Marine Mammal Conservancy say that is not enough for it to learn proper dolphin-speak.
"Castaway's vocalisations are not normal," conservancy president Robert Lingenfelser said. "She speaks in a monotone, similar to the way that people who cannot hear speak."
So officials have electronically linked Castaway's habitat with a lagoon at Dolphins Plus, a research and interactive educational facility a few miles away.
Learn self-preservation
Underwater speakers and microphones have been installed at both locations so the calf can communicate with hearing dolphins.
The 107-centimetre-long, 14-kilogram calf is swimming well and breathing normally, Lingenfelser said.
Officials do not plan to release it, because the first few months of a dolphin's development are a critical time for it to learn self-preservation.
Castaway became stranded in November but was initially deemed healthy enough for release after convalescing at a marine lab in Sarasota.
But instead of swimming offshore, she returned to the beach three times before she was taken to the Keys.
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