blacksunsyndicate asked: Hey there, just wondering what happened to the dolphins teeth? And keep up the great work, its really inspiring! xx
I don’t exactly know why this particular dolphin has no teeth, but it’s easy to speculate. Poor dental health in captive cetaceans is frequently the result of jaw popping, or the act of biting down on the steel gates and walls of a tank out of aggression. Essentially jaw popping is a display of dominance. Sometimes habits are formed and cetaceans may turn to jaw popping when they are bored. When a cetacean breaks or fractures a tooth, the pulp is exposed and they must undergo an extremely painful drilling procedure known as a pulpotomy without any anesthesia to avoid infection. Jaw popping is what most likely caused this dolphin to lose her teeth over the years, and it should be noted that there are three to four large steel pipes in her tank (along with four other dolphins).
02 Aug 2012 @ 08:14PM / 
