So here is the question: Can a dolphin really kill a shark?
One thing is clear. Sharks can kill dolphins and sometimes they do. From Janet Mann's book Cetacean Societies: Field Studies of Dolphins and Whales, for example, we learn that at least a third of the examined bottlenose dolphins near Queensland had scars from shark attacks. Dolphins near the Natal coast of South Africa also had scars from shark bites. Dolphin remains in sharks' stomach are also known to be found. But, as Mann points out, no actual cases of sharks attacking dolphins have been observed.
One thing is clear. Sharks can kill dolphins and sometimes they do. From Janet Mann's book Cetacean Societies: Field Studies of Dolphins and Whales, for example, we learn that at least a third of the examined bottlenose dolphins near Queensland had scars from shark attacks. Dolphins near the Natal coast of South Africa also had scars from shark bites. Dolphin remains in sharks' stomach are also known to be found. But, as Mann points out, no actual cases of sharks attacking dolphins have been observed.
But what about the other way around? We know that a dolphin would not eat a shark but can it inflict injuries that would result in death? In his book The Living Sea, Jacques Cousteau writes that "sea mammals can kill a shark by ramming it at high speed, as dolphins have demonstrated in oceanarium tanks." Now I am no expert in this field so I would have to take professor Cousteau's word for this.
In other words, sharks and dolphins can both be deadly to each other. The other interesting question would be whether they can be friends...
2 comments:
tyvm this info was helpful for me
I'm told that the dolphins use their sonar to detect pressure points in the shark and ram them at high speeds. Sharks are cartilage animals and have to worry about being hit by harder boned animals such as tuna, but a dolphin is much more intelligent and will use what it has.
Or so says a biologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
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