Mom, son dolphins get trapped in shallow water with ‘limited food,’ Texas photos show
Two bottlenose dolphins, a mother and son, were recently rescued after becoming trapped behind a dam, Texas wildlife experts said.
Rescuers made their way to the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, near the Gulf Coast, when staff spotted the dolphin pair swimming in shallow, brackish water, behind a “water-flow control structure,” the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network said in a Jan. 5 Facebook post.
The dolphins, named Jack and Jill, were stuck in this shallow stretch with “limited food” and cut off from escape by the structure, the nonprofit rescue group said.
Aside from the lack of food, the water posed a potential danger to the dolphins, as “low salinity water has been documented to have harmful health impacts … ranging from skin lesions and serum electrolyte abnormalities, to death,” according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association.
But with help from SeaWorld San Antonio, rescuers were able to get the dolphins back into open water near Galveston Bay, TMMSN said.
Officials did not say how long the mother and calf had been trapped.
“We now look forward to following both Jack and Jill’s progress through our follow-up boat-based research surveys,” the group said.
The bond between a mother bottlenose dolphin and its calf can be quite strong, with some research showing that calves continue to associate with their mothers as they mature, even displaying preference for them over others, according to Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
The Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge is about 60 miles east of Houston.
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