• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Meet The Panda Dolphin, A Black And White Beauty That Likes To Swim Upside-Down

December 10, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Nature has a nifty way of throwing unexpected collaborations into the mix, and on that topic, might we introduce you to the panda dolphin. Known to science as the Commerson’s dolphin, it rocks an unusual pattern in black and white and has a curious habit of swimming upside-down.

Panda dolphins are divided into two subspecies, Cephalorhynchus commersonii commersonii that is found in South America, and Cephalorhynchus commersonii kerguelenensis which enjoys the waters off the Kerguelen Islands in the Indian Ocean. That puts them at an approximate distance of 8,500 kilometers (5,300 miles) from one another, but nobody’s quite sure what motivated the divide.

Advertisement

Those off the Kerguelen Islands are the largest at around 1.8 meters (5 foot 11 inches) in length, weighing a hefty 86 kilograms (190 pounds), compared to the more modest weight of 45 kilograms (99 pounds) seen in their South American cousins. Both subspecies rock the black and white pattern that’s inspired their many nicknames, which include panda dolphins, skunk dolphins, and piebald dolphins. There are lots of piebald animals in the world, characterized by irregular patches of two colors, most typically black and white. The underlying genetic cause of this patterning is closely related to leucism.



Leucistic animals exhibit a reduction in all pigmentation, rather than just melanin as seen in albinism. In piebald animals, only certain parts of the body have this reduced pigmentation.

But a jazzy tuxedo isn’t all the panda dolphins have to offer when it comes to alternative lifestyle. It’s thought that the black and white pattern may improve their chances when hunting as a form of disruptive camouflage that conceals the dolphins’ silhouettes. And to make it easier to spot their prey, they’ve adapted to do just fine swimming upside-down.

black and white panda dolphins flipping out of the water

Panda dolphins don’t appear to care for remaining in the water, nor indeed the right way up.

This might come as a surprise to anyone who’s been keeping up with killer whales’ shenanigans of late. These highly intelligent hunters will turn over large prey to induce tonic immobility, as flipping things like sharks puts them in a similar state to sleep.

Not so, for the plucky panda dolphin who merrily zooms about the ocean belly-side up. In fact, they’re famous for their acrobatics, as Whale And Dolphin Conservation states: “Commerson’s dolphins show typical dolphin curiosity towards humans and will readily approach boats to bowride and wake ride. They are energetic and active, often performing figure of eight swim-patterns underneath boats, spinning underwater and leaping clear of the water. Commerson’s dolphins also appear to enjoy surfing on waves close to shore.”

Panda dolphins? They’re gnarly dudes.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Growth? Value? Some investors opt for a bit of both
  2. NBA Top Shot creator on the NFT craze and why Ethereum still isn’t consumer friendly
  3. Starseeds: Psychologists On Why Some People Think They’re Aliens Living On Earth
  4. What Are The Chances Of An Asteroid Hitting The Earth Soon?

Source Link: Meet The Panda Dolphin, A Black And White Beauty That Likes To Swim Upside-Down

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • New Island Emerges In Alaska As Glacier Rapidly Retreats, NASA Satellite Imagery Shows
  • With A New Drug Cocktail, Scientists May Have Finally Found Flu’s Universal Weak Spot
  • Battered Skull Confirms Roman Amphitheaters Were Beastly For Bears
  • Mine Spiders Bigger Than A Burger Patty Lurk Deep In Abandoned Caves
  • Blackout Zones: The Places On Earth Where Magnetic Compasses Don’t Work
  • What Is Actually Happening When You Get Blackout Drunk? An Ethically Dubious Experiment Found Out
  • Koalas Get A Shot At Survival As World-First Chlamydia Vaccine Gets Approval
  • We Could See A Black Hole Explode Within 10 Years – Unlocking The Secrets Of The Universe
  • Denisovan DNA May Make Some People Resistant To Malaria
  • Beware The Kellas Cat? This “Cryptid” Turned Out To Be Real, But It Wasn’t What People Thought
  • “They Simply Have A Taste For The Hedonists Among Us”: Festival Mosquito Study Has Some Bad News
  • What Is The Purpose Of Those Lines On Your Towels?
  • The Invisible World Around Us: How Can We Capture And Clean The Air We Breathe?
  • 85-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Eggs Dated Using “Atomic Clock For Fossils” For The First Time
  • Why Shouldn’t You Kiss Babies? New Study Shows Even Healthy Newborns Can Become Severely Ill With RSV
  • Earth Has A New Quasi-Moon – And It Has Probably Been Around For Decades
  • Want To Kill Your Prey? Do It Feather-Legged Lace Weaver Spider Style And Vomit All Over Them
  • IFLScience The Big Questions: Are We In The Anthropocene?
  • The Wildfire Paradox Affecting 440 Million People Has As Worrying A Solution As You’d Expect
  • AI May Infringe On Your Rights And Insult Your Dignity (Unless We Do Something Soon)
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version