Hickeys of Doom

[drhoz]

Because they haven't shown up here since 2007, and because there's a paper mentioned at another blog that I wanted to bring up.

Comments

[sabishii_kirito]

I was thinking the same. They look so happy, but looking at the hole in the dolphin just proves how evil they are.

[drhoz]

well, they do what they do, and they do it well. At least they don't descend on you in ravenous swarms....

[ianam1983]

Yeah - a bite here, a bite there. I actually prefer that to something like a great white that'd take out half my torso just testing to see if I was edible, or bloodsuckers like lampreys. Losing an ice-cream scoop-sized portion of flesh is ick, but it won't kill me.

[snapes_angel]

Just like a card shark.

[drhoz]

*snickers*

[kittenmommy]

D:

[drhoz]

your emoticon needs all the little serrations XD

[kittenmommy]

NOOOO! D:

[mercureal]

awesomest comment

[estarial]

These guys are RIDICULOUS. I worked with spinner dolphins in Hawai'i and cookie cutter sharks just love the dolphins. The poor spinners pick up so many bites that we actually use the bites and the bite scars to help ID individual dolphins.

[drhoz]

well, I'm glad the dolphins survive repeated wounds that deep.

[ianam1983]

They're not terribly deep, actually, and even tropical dolphins like spinners have a layer of blubber. Most cetaceans just wear cookiecutter bites as minor nuisances. And they do make for handy ID marks from a researcher's viewpoint.

You should see rough-toothed dolphins, Steno bredanensis. They're deep divers and like half of them have pink polka-dots all over their undersides from encounters with cookiecutters.

[drhoz]

That's true.

[rubyelf]

Those things are horrific. The teeth... ugh. Cookie cutters will never look the same again. I've ready about these guys but never seen the bites.

[drhoz]

they also look like file scaling tools, don't they?