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Captive Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) Spontaneously Using Water Flow to Manipulate Objects

Several terrestrial animals and delphinids manipulate objects in a tactile manner, using parts of their bodies, such as their mouths or hands. In this paper, we report that bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) manipulate objects not by direct bodily contact, but by spontaneous water flow. Three...

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Autores principales: Yamamoto, Chisato, Furuta, Keisuke, Taki, Michihiro, Morisaka, Tadamichi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4175997/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25250625
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0107796
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author Yamamoto, Chisato
Furuta, Keisuke
Taki, Michihiro
Morisaka, Tadamichi
author_facet Yamamoto, Chisato
Furuta, Keisuke
Taki, Michihiro
Morisaka, Tadamichi
author_sort Yamamoto, Chisato
collection PubMed
description Several terrestrial animals and delphinids manipulate objects in a tactile manner, using parts of their bodies, such as their mouths or hands. In this paper, we report that bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) manipulate objects not by direct bodily contact, but by spontaneous water flow. Three of four dolphins at Suma Aqualife Park performed object manipulation with food. The typical sequence of object manipulation consisted of a three step procedure. First, the dolphins released the object from the sides of their mouths while assuming a head-down posture near the floor. They then manipulated the object around their mouths and caught it. Finally, they ceased to engage in their head-down posture and started to swim. When the dolphins moved the object, they used the water current in the pool or moved their head. These results showed that dolphins manipulate objects using movements that do not directly involve contact between a body part and the object. In the event the dolphins dropped the object on the floor, they lifted it by making water flow in one of three methods: opening and closing their mouths repeatedly, moving their heads lengthwise, or making circular head motions. This result suggests that bottlenose dolphins spontaneously change their environment to manipulate objects. The reason why aquatic animals like dolphins do object manipulation by changing their environment but terrestrial animals do not may be that the viscosity of the aquatic environment is much higher than it is in terrestrial environments. This is the first report thus far of any non-human mammal engaging in object manipulation using several methods to change their environment.
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spelling pubmed-41759972014-10-02 Captive Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) Spontaneously Using Water Flow to Manipulate Objects Yamamoto, Chisato Furuta, Keisuke Taki, Michihiro Morisaka, Tadamichi PLoS One Research Article Several terrestrial animals and delphinids manipulate objects in a tactile manner, using parts of their bodies, such as their mouths or hands. In this paper, we report that bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) manipulate objects not by direct bodily contact, but by spontaneous water flow. Three of four dolphins at Suma Aqualife Park performed object manipulation with food. The typical sequence of object manipulation consisted of a three step procedure. First, the dolphins released the object from the sides of their mouths while assuming a head-down posture near the floor. They then manipulated the object around their mouths and caught it. Finally, they ceased to engage in their head-down posture and started to swim. When the dolphins moved the object, they used the water current in the pool or moved their head. These results showed that dolphins manipulate objects using movements that do not directly involve contact between a body part and the object. In the event the dolphins dropped the object on the floor, they lifted it by making water flow in one of three methods: opening and closing their mouths repeatedly, moving their heads lengthwise, or making circular head motions. This result suggests that bottlenose dolphins spontaneously change their environment to manipulate objects. The reason why aquatic animals like dolphins do object manipulation by changing their environment but terrestrial animals do not may be that the viscosity of the aquatic environment is much higher than it is in terrestrial environments. This is the first report thus far of any non-human mammal engaging in object manipulation using several methods to change their environment. Public Library of Science 2014-09-24 /pmc/articles/PMC4175997/ /pubmed/25250625 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0107796 Text en © 2014 Yamamoto et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Yamamoto, Chisato
Furuta, Keisuke
Taki, Michihiro
Morisaka, Tadamichi
Captive Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) Spontaneously Using Water Flow to Manipulate Objects
title Captive Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) Spontaneously Using Water Flow to Manipulate Objects
title_full Captive Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) Spontaneously Using Water Flow to Manipulate Objects
title_fullStr Captive Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) Spontaneously Using Water Flow to Manipulate Objects
title_full_unstemmed Captive Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) Spontaneously Using Water Flow to Manipulate Objects
title_short Captive Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) Spontaneously Using Water Flow to Manipulate Objects
title_sort captive bottlenose dolphins (tursiops truncatus) spontaneously using water flow to manipulate objects
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4175997/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25250625
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0107796
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