The author of The Eastern Evil
Recently, a tourist in Shantou, Guangdong Province, Nan'ao Island was lucky to photograph 5 pink dolphins appearing, the tourist said that this is not only the first time in his life to see pink dolphins, but also the first time to see 5 dolphins appear together. In the video, the five pink dolphins swim forward at times, as if competing for swimming speed, sometimes stopping to play happily. Many netizens watched this scene and said that these dolphins should have run out of the fairy tale, and the picture was too fairytale.
There are also netizens who do not understand pink dolphins who ask whether these pink dolphins are formed by ordinary dolphin mutations. The color of the dolphin's body surface is generally grayish-black or white, and pink dolphins rarely appear in human field of vision. So are these 5 pink dolphins mutant or normal? Why do they appear in teams? What does their appearance illustrate?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" is the pink dolphin mutant >? </h1>
If you have not heard of pink dolphins before, then the first time you see a video of such dolphins, I believe you will also ask questions, is this a mutant species? The reason for this question is that dolphins are basically gray-black, black or white in our cognition, and basically do not appear pink. But people who know pink dolphins are not surprised by this, because they are not mutated species, but Chinese white dolphins, a national first-class protected animal in China.
Chinese white dolphin, there is a "white" word in the name, but why is the skin color pink when adulthood? It is understood that the Chinese white dolphin is born with a dark gray body, and as it continues to grow, the color of the body surface will gradually become lighter. When the white dolphin reaches adulthood, its body will take on a pink color. Scientists have found through research that the pink color of the body surface of the white dolphin is not caused by pigmentation, but the blood vessels under its epidermis are easier to see through the skin.
Not only that, scientists have also found that the pink color of white dolphins is related to body temperature regulation, newborn and young dolphins are not yet fully developed, so their thermoregulation system is not yet perfect, so the body surface color is mostly dark gray or gray. The adult white dolphin has developed a complete thermoregulatory system, which requires the help of a large number of blood vessels, so its body appears pink. The Chinese white dolphin is a close relative of bottlenose dolphins and killer whales, and is also essentially a thermostatic mammal.
The earliest record of this creature in China is during the Tang Dynasty, and at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, white dolphins were occasionally found in the Pearl River estuary area of Guangdong, where fishermen called it "Lu Ting". At present, white dolphins are mainly distributed in the Indian Ocean and the southeast coastal areas of China, they live in shallow waters, and the depth generally does not exceed 25 meters. White dolphins are like giant pandas, which are protected at the national level, because they are also known as "giant pandas on the water".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="17" >Why is the white dolphin an endangered animal? </h1>
Although the white dolphin has long been defined as a nationally protected animal, the population of this species is still endangered for a long time, what is the reason behind it? There are causes of natural death and human factors, and the following is a rough discussion of the causes of human factors. The first is that the fishermen mistakenly catch, and the fishermen also know that the white dolphin is a national first-class protected animal, catching a prison bottom to sit through, but the white dolphin will take the initiative to follow the fishing boat many times.
Because fishermen need to throw bait into the sea in order to attract fish, this attracts white dolphins, but also increases the risk of white dolphins being entangled in fishing nets. Once the white dolphin is entangled in the net and cannot be undone, it cannot swim to the surface of the water to breathe, and finally suffocates in the water. Second, white dolphins collide with boats. It is understood that even in the protected area, there are occasional accidents in which the propellers of the boat injure the dorsal fin of white dolphins, and many white dolphin carcasses have traces of dorsal fin injuries.
There is also a reason for water pollution, domestic sewage produced by human life, agricultural sewage and industrial wastewater, which cannot be completely purified and then discharged into the ocean, which leads to some white dolphins living in the more polluted seas for a long time, resulting in the accumulation of heavy metals and organic chemicals in their subcutaneous fat and internal organs, which not only endangers its own body over time, but also affects the health of the next generation.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" Data-track="18" What does the multiple appearances of white dolphins > illustrate? </h1>
How to further scientifically and efficiently protect white dolphins is a topic that needs long-term research in the future. But judging from the current appearance of white dolphins, their survival has improved. In March this year, a pink dolphin appeared in the waters of Wuzhou in Xijiang, Guangxi, and although it was believed to have accidentally broken into the waters of the Xijiang River, its appearance made many people think that the water quality of the waters had improved, because it foraged in the waters of the Xijiang River for a while before leaving.
The pearl river estuary area of Guangdong is also a place where white dolphins are more frequent, and in the past there were few white dolphins because of water pollution, and now white dolphins appear occasionally, which shows that the water quality has indeed improved.