For this a team of researchers has created a map of the bays where they can literally go on sleeping peacefully
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Also Dolphins they need rest, especially those of Hawaii, which every day have to contend with crowds of tourists engaged in kayaking and snorkeling in the bays where marine mammals swim. There sleep loss in cute animals, however, it has unhealthy consequences for them. And that is why a team of researchers has created a map of the bays where they can literally continue to sleep sleep peacefully.
The bottlenose dolphins that live in the waters of Hawaii have their own healthy habits: they rest in the bays of the islands during the day and at night they go in search of food by moving to the open sea. After studying their behavior, scientists managed to identify 21 out of 99 bays, ideal habitats intended exclusively for their rest and consequently limited to the access of tourists. Only 21 are suitable habitats for Dolphins sleepy. Their mapping model took into account the key environmental factors that make a bay ideal for dolphin sleep, such as its depth, size, and distance from foraging areas.
"Sleep is essential for most animals," said the scientist David W. Johnston, of Duke University. “When they are deprived of sleep, dolphins gradually show a diminished ability to process information and to be attentive to environmental stimuli. In technical jargon, this is called a 'supervisory decrease'. "
Such discomfort for them translates into difficulty in finding food, avoiding predators and communicating with other animals. For this reason, special maps have been prepared to contain some of the negative effects of human activities, without denying tourists all the opportunities associated with close encounters with dolphins.
"In this way we should be able to minimize the negative effects on dolphins, without limiting the access to dolphins on the whole coast, with a mutual benefit, for dolphins and for tourism", he explained. Lesley Thorne, co-author of the study.
The study was published in PLoS ONE.
Francesca Mancuso
