Many people may have been annoyed by background noise when trying to carry on a conversation in a restaurant or bar.
Now appears new Research Dolphins struggle with the same thing.
Man-made noise pollution makes it so difficult for dolphins to survive and communicate that the animals take a special approach.
Attendees: The delta dolphin was one of the animals that participated in the research. He solved tasks poorly when there was background noise. Photo: Dolphin Research Center, Florida, USA.
according to the sound
Dolphins are one of many species in the ocean that rely on whistling and echolocation to survive.
Sound can travel tens, if not hundreds of kilometers under water. Among other things, dolphins use this to communicate, cooperate in hunting, and reproduce, according to BBC.
But noise from ships, oil rigs, and other human activities makes that nearly impossible.
The dolphins compensate for this by “shouting” to each other, the researchers said.
Friends: Dolphins Delta and Reese use echolocation to work together. New research shows that noise in the water makes life difficult for dolphins. Photo: Dolphin Research Center.
“Screaming” didn’t help
The researchers conducted several tests on two domesticated dolphins. The dolphins were tasked with pressing each button within a short period of time.
During the tests, the researchers made it so that the dolphins could only communicate with sound.
The task in the tests can be a tight task for the two animals, but the researchers are starting to play louder and louder sounds from an underwater speaker.
Watch dolphins in action here:
The dolphins responded by “shouting” louder and longer to each other to get rid of the noise. But this was not enough.
The dolphins were significantly worse at doing the task when there was a lot of noise. According to the report, the loudest sound levels are consistent with the noise many animals would experience from underwater charging and digging Watchman.
Dolphins also change their body language and behavior when exposed to noise. They swim closely and often together to maintain contact.
Noise: Delta and Rhys dolphins are doing well together as usual. But when the researchers filled the pool with noise, they changed their behaviour. Photo: Dolphin Research Center
– Although they tried to compensate, despite the fact that they were very excited and that they knew this collaborative task well, the noise impeded their ability to coordinate, Pernell Sorensen, one of the researchers behind the study, told the paper.
Noise: Human activity at sea creates a lot of background noise for wildlife. This is the Norwegian platform Sleipner b. Photo: Jonas Behn Henriksen/TV2
– interesting
In recent decades, human activity has radically changed the sound range in the ocean.
Shipping turbines, earthquakes, winds and oil rigs make a lot of noise in the world’s oceans. The Guardian writes that this is linked to delinquency, disease and behavior change among many species.
The Norwegian Institute for Marine Research (HI) is one of many research environments looking at how noise affects animal life at sea.
Geir Pedersen, a researcher at HI, thinks the new research on dolphins is important.
– it is very interesting. It’s the first time they’ve shown how noise affects animals, as far as I know, he says.
Researcher: Geir Pedersen at the Institute of Marine Research researches how sound and sound affect life at sea. Photo: Christine Fagerbakke/HI
Pedersen stresses that sound is vital to all life in the sea. Thus noise pollution can be very dangerous.
– If we continue to make noise and don’t take animals into account, it could have negative consequences for the population, he says.
Pedersen adds that the new research on dolphins is based on a controlled experiment, with trainers and pets.
It doesn’t necessarily give a completely accurate picture of what the noise is like for wild dolphins.
The next step is to find out how this happens in real situations. But this is a more difficult study.
Here, Christine, 29, swims with dolphins in the Oslo Fjord
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