currentsinbiology: Dolphins Use Targeted Echolocation To Plan Their Hunting Dives  The central

currentsinbiology:

Dolphins Use Targeted Echolocation To Plan Their Hunting Dives 

The central challenge of dolphin existence is that your oxygen is on the surface and your dinner is in the deep. Hang out breathing air too long and you’ll starve. Dive too deep for food and you’ll drown.

To thrive, dolphins must use their oxygen wisely. A new study of one type of dolphin suggests they do that by carefully planning each dive, using information from previous dives to predict where food might be.

Thestudy, published Wednesday in the Journal of Experimental Biology, used a relatively new technology to record the locations and vocalizations of 33 Risso’s dolphins as they swam and hunted off San Clemente Island in Southern California. Researchers led by Patricia Arranz of the University of La Laguna in Spain used suction cups to attach small recorders to the dolphins.