It appears dolphins like to get high and they do it intentionally. A team from the BBC made this discovery when making a documentary on bottlenose dolphins. The dolphin’s drug of choice is puffer fish toxin. However, they don’t actually eat the puffer fish. Such large amounts of the toxin would be deadly, but in smaller amounts it is like a narcotic. It appears puffer fish release small amounts of toxin when they are threatened. The dolphins will gently nibble on the puffer fish to provoke them and make them produce the toxins.
The BBC team filmed the dolphins gently chewing a puffer fish and passing it around. Afterwards, the dolphins began displaying strange behavior. For example, they would put their noses near the surface and study their own reflections in fascination.
The documentary (link here) will begin on BBC1 in the first week of January.
Be sure to check out the interesting dolphin facts below.
Interesting Dolphin Facts
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Dolphins have “signature whistles” that they use like names.
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A female dolphin is called a cow, a male is called a bull and a young dolphin is called a calf.
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Dolphins live in groups called pods. There are usually around 12 individuals in a pod.
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A baby dolphin born tail first.
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The killer whale (also known as Orca) is a type of dolphin.
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A dolphin sleeps with only one side of its brain at a time, so it can keep breathing and watch for threats at all times.
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A calf has a special tongue, which can shape like a straw for drinking mother’s milk without ingesting any salt water.
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Some species of dolphins live in rivers.
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A calf has a special tongue, which it can shape like a straw for drinking mother’s milk without ingesting any salt water.
