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Article: Baby Dolphins in Shark Bay: in shark-filled waters, how do mother dolphins help their babies survive?
- Article from:
- Highlights for Children
- Article date:
- October 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Highlights for Children, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia, have a hard life. Almost half of the babies die while they are still little.
Dr. Janet Mann and Dr. Jana Watson-Capps are scientists who study these dolphins. They wanted to know why the baby dolphins die. They also wanted to know how mother dolphins help to keep them alive.
Dr. Mann and Dr. Watson-Capps had two ideas. The babies live in Shark Bay, home to many sharks. Maybe sharks eat the baby dolphins. The scientists also noticed that some babies seem weak when they are born. Maybe the baby dolphins die because they are not strong.
For eleven years, the scientists watched how mothers took care of ...