Over at cuteoverload, they posted a link to a YouTube film clip of some dolphins playing some pretty amazing tricks with bubbles. It was so mind-blowing (to me) that I thought I’d post a link here, too.
Here they are. They contrive to blow a bubble which comes out in the shape of a big ring, but for the life of me I can’t see just how they do it. They remind me of astronauts who play with blobs of water in a condition of weightlessness, in the way that they toy with the bubbles, spinning or segmenting them.
I’m quite jealous of their ability. Is this cool or what?
Thanks! That was really cool. It’s like watching kids play :).
Brilliant, thanks for sharing that.
It looks like they blow through the centre of a standard bubble to keep the ring’s shape, but its freakishly brilliant all the same. Your water globs in space analagy is perfect.
What is the most freakish about this is the fact that the bubble rings don’t rise to the surface until disturbed. In fact, some seem to slowly sink. That’s just bizarre.
This might be play with a purpose (follow the link and read down a bit for “bubble net fishing”).
OK, that’s for baleen whales and not dolphins, but playing with bubbles may be more than just fun for our cetacean cousins.