Page 7 - IAV Digital Magazine #455

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New Hybrid Animal Discovered In Hawaii
By Caitlin O’Kane
Last year, a team of scien- tists spotted what they believed was a hybrid animal off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii. A new report from Cascadia Research Collectiveconfir ms they did -- and the new sea creature is the result of two dis- tinct dolphin species mating.
What the researchers dis- covered was a hybrid of a melon-headed dolphin (also known as the melon-headed whale) and a rough-toothed dolphin. In an interview with local newspaper The Garden Island, the head of the project said the discovery is their "most unusual
finding."
"We had the photos and sus- pected it was a hybrid from mor- phological char- acteristics inter- mediate between species," Robin Baird said.
During their two- week project, scientists were able to get a
biopsy sample from the crea- ture and study its genetics. They were able to confirm that the animal was a hybrid. "Based on the genetics, the father was a rough-toothed dolphin and the mother a melon- headed whale," Baird told CBS News via email.
One of the species that makes up this hybrid is very rare in Hawaii. Melon-headed dolphins usually don't swim in these waters, so when scientists spotted one, they put satellite tags on the ani- mal. During this two-week study, scientists also spotted another
rare species in the water, pantropical spot- ted dolphins, which they also tagged.
Baird's research team is going to be back in Kauai's waters next month, when they hope to get more pho- tos of the new hybrid dolphin and water sam-
ples. They also hope to do test- ing on other species in the area.
"We're hoping that just by talk- ing to some tour operators and fishermen ... we might get tips and encounter something like pilot whales," Baird said.
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