Sunday, April 26, 2009

Did you know?

Okay. I promise I am not obsessed with dolphins. Or at least I wasn't until I found the (still broken) dolphin photos gadget. (Side note: oh man. Just found many more dolphin photos gadgets, at least one of which probably works. However, in light of recent news . . .)
But I have just discovered something terrifying:
Dolphins are vicious.
Or at least they were in 1999, and I doubt climate change is making them any nicer (Yes, I said it. Climate change.) Here is an excerpt from the article with some myths and facts about dolphins:
MYTH -- Dolphins generally enjoy the company of humans.
FACT -- People who attempt to swim with dolphins in the wild are often bitten, bumped and prodded. And dolphins that swim alongside boats may simply be using the boat's wake to
expend less energy while swimming.
MYTH -- Dolphins save shipwrecked sailors and victims
FACT -- While the result may benevolent, the dolphins may simply be playing with the sailors as they would a piece of debris or other ocean animal.

But most terrifyingly, and I won't even quote the gruesome details, dolphins kill their babies, and harmless little porpoises, by ramming them over and over with their noses, picking them up with their teeth, and slamming them into the water.
According to William J. Broad of the New York Times, people think dolphins are friendly because "the mouths of many species turn upward in a perpetual grin." Remind anyone else of 50 Cent?
Now that dolphin picture from my previous post is downright ominous. What is he thinking?

2 comments:

Ms. Sibbett said...

You know how in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the dolphins are like advanced beings from another world who have just been hanging out on earth receiving free fish? Maybe... um... I am trying to find a benevolent explanation for their baby-killing... maybe they are sending them back to their home planet by shaking them out of their bodies so they can make the trip through space without needing oxygen tanks, because they don't have baby-dolphin-sized oxygen tanks?

Or maybe dolphins are just vicious. Woe to all the women who have tattooed one around their bellybutton!

Anonymous said...

This looks more like an evil smirk to me than a smile...I think they are plotting their take over of the seas. Also, if you go by numbers, they would technically rule the world since 70% of the Earth is covered by water... The world needs to keep throwing those plastic can holders away without cutting them up first, or we could all be in danger.