According to some, dolphins are particularly sensitive animals. But that’s not what allows them to control our heartbeat. But it’s actually the physical ability that researchers have just demonstrated in the bottlenose dolphin. It can detect electric fields.
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Bottlenose dolphins — which we sometimes call bottlenose dolphins — have a type of dimple on their nose that looks like a beak. They are pricked with mustaches when they come into the world. But these fall quickly. Scientists were not previously aware of the benefit of remaining boils. But a team from the University of Rostock and Nuremberg Zoo (Germany) reported… Journal of Experimental Biology How did they understand? Those that scientists call vibratory crypts are actually nothing but particularly sensitive electroreceptors.
Bottlenose dolphins detect weak electric fields
Experiments conducted by the researchers on two captive specimens show that they are able to detect very weak electric fields. 2.4 to 5.5 microvolts per centimeter. Scientists have already discovered this ability in another dolphin, the Guyana common dolphin. To confirm its usefulness in nature in bottlenose dolphins, further work will be necessary.
But scientists suspect that this ability to detect electric fields could help dolphins detect small prey hidden in the sand. In the 1990s, they actually noticed a strange occurrence at home: bottlenose dolphins “Snout twitched” Before you dive head first into the sand and emerge with a few fish. The researchers thought they were using echolocation to find them. But they noticed similar tremors in the dolphins tested for their study when the electric fields were particularly weak. As if they were trying to check for the presence of the electrical stimulator.
Bottlenose dolphins use electric fields to hunt
The researchers stress that bottlenose dolphins have also been shown to be sensitive to various electrical fields, such as those produced by fish – or by a human heartbeat – in real life. They argue that this ability to detect electric fields could also allow them to orient themselves in relation to the Earth’s magnetic field. Thus, they were able to find, in the fluctuations of this field, an explanation for some of the ramifications.
