Featured Image Credit: Stephen Dawson
By Kira Krall
Dolphins and whales breathe through their blowhole at the top of their head. Usually. But one dolphin has had to make a major adjustment.
Researchers surveying Hector’s dolphins in New Zealand noticed a dolphin consistently surfacing at a near-vertical angle, very different from the surfacing arc of its pod-mates. After close inspection, they saw that its blowhole was almost completely sealed off. They also heard strange inhaling sounds coming from the curious cetacean. It was breathing through its mouth.
This is amazing for one simple reason. A dolphin’s mouth is sealed off from its trachea by its larynx. Air shouldn’t be able to travel from a dolphin’s mouth to its lungs. This dolphin’s body figured out how to shift its larynx back and forth to allow air in to its lungs and to keep water out. This perfect balance is practically a miracle.
All of this is in response to a broken blowhole. On a normal dolphin, the default setting is “sealed.” As dolphins surface, muscles pull the blowhole open, allow air in, and the blowhole automatically seals back up again. What caused a malfunction in this dolphin’s blowhole muscles, scientists don’t know. It could be anything from a birth defect, tumor, or a previous injury.
What’s encouraging is that this exact Hector’s dolphin has been observed for three years. It appears happy, healthy, and perfectly capable of keeping up with its podmates. This dolphin has defied the odds and shows us that wild animals can thrive despite a disability.
You can watch the dolphin’s strange breathing method in action in this video: