The Dolphins They are one of the most beloved animals, whether due to their intelligence or their docility, these beings have proven to be unique but with many secret abilities.
Not much is known yet about their searching abilities; However, a new study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology has revealed that dolphins have a sense that helps them find prey.
The discovered ability has shown how much remains to be discovered about these marine beings and how they have evolved to survive in the ocean.
The seventh sense of dolphins
Apart from the senses that we already know (sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch) it was known that dolphins They have a sixth senseecholocation, a skill that consists of emit a sound and receive it back when it collides with a solid surface, so that the dolphin forms a mental image of the environment.
Now a new meaning has been discovered, It is the ability to sense electric fields from the sea, this is known as electroreception.. This ability is possessed by other marine beings such as sharks or manta rays and it works through electrical impulses. Furthermore, marine beings tend to develop it since water is an excellent electrical conductor.
A group of scientists from the University of Rostock, Germany, analyzed dolphins for a year Dolly and Donna who live in the Nuremberg Zoo. The team trained these animals to learn to use a device made of PVC, with electrodes, where they put their heads and with the device they measured the sensitivity of the dolphins to the electric fields.
To the dolphins They were ordered to remove their heads from the device if they felt the electric field, and were rewarded when they managed to associate removing their heads with feeling the fields.
The results showed that both dolphins they felt the fields which is imperceptible to humans; This reinforced the hypothesis in which it was already thought that the whiskers they have when they are born use this mechanism to find their mother.
However, the real purpose is to detect Earth’s magnetic fields and have better navigation skillsis an equivalent to the orientation of birds.
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“This newly discovered sense could allow dolphins to hunt fish buried in the seabed by sensing the electric fields produced by marine animals, and could help dolphins navigate as they move through the planet’s magnetic field,” notes the study.