What she’s observed over 35 years of studying dolphins in the U.S. “We call it holding hands,” said Mann, who also directs the nonprofit Potomac-Chesapeake Dolphin Project.Īlthough many people casually refer to a “pod” of dolphins, Mann dislikes the term, because it implies a stable group, like a pack of wolves. ![]() “Your friends that you need are also the individuals most likely to get you sick.”ĭolphins are extremely playful animals and often swim close together, sometimes even touching fins. “Contact networks represent a double-edged sword,” he said. ![]() To understand how diseases circulate in social animals - such as humans, dolphins or chimpanzees - scientists must scrutinize not only the biology of a virus, but also how vulnerable populations interact, said Jacob Negrey, a researcher who studies animal viruses at Wake Forest School of Medicine. She realized that the key to understanding swift virus transmission was tracing dolphin social networks, much as public health authorities have tracked the Covid-19 pandemic. “When dolphins breathe together at the surface, they’re sharing respiratory droplets just like we do when we’re talking or coughing on each other.” “It’s much like Covid - it’s respiratory” in how it spreads, said Mann. Altogether, an estimated 20,000 dolphins died from the virus, and the region’s population of coastal dolphins shrank by about 50%. Mann and other scientists are trying to understand how a highly contagious and lethal disease called cetacean morbillivirus - related to measles in humans and first detected in Virginia and Maryland waters - can spread rapidly among dolphins along the Atlantic Coast, as it did from 2013 to 2015.ĭuring that outbreak, more than 1,600 dolphins washed ashore on beaches from New York to Florida, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. While such close contact is essential to dolphin social bonds, sharing space and air can also quickly spread disease. “It says, ‘We’re together,’” said Mann, who is based at Georgetown University. It’s a way of affirming the relationships that are so important to these highly intelligent and social mammals, like a handshake or a hug among humans. ![]() Synchronized breathing is something dolphins often do with close pals, like these males, or that mothers and calves do together, said Mann. “A perfect sync,” said Janet Mann, a dolphin researcher watching from a small skiff. Three young male dolphins simultaneously break the water’s surface to breathe - first exhaling, then inhaling - before slipping back under the waves of the Chesapeake Bay.
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