Why do hundreds of whales and dolphins 'collective suicide'?

The phenomenon of "collective suicide" occurring in some animals is one of the mysteries that scientists have not yet explained. Prominent are the cases of hundreds of dolphins, whales together rushing to shore to find death.

In recent studies, scientists believe they have found the reason for the large-scale "suicides" of whales and dolphins.

Whales and dolphins are highly social creatures, they often migrate in large flocks along the same path from year to year. They communicate with each other through the sonar system and thus also direct the movement.

Types of mammals with migratory behavior. (Photo BBC.)

But, some "mysterious element" has appeared that makes the navigation system and their senses "paralyzed".

According to scientists, there are many causes of "jamming" their navigation systems.

1. Artificial causes: the effect of sound waves from submarine locators makes marine sounds polluted.
2. Natural causes: changes in wind direction, weather, rustic algae, lunar cycle .

This causes them to lose direction to panic. They rushed to the shore as a relief from sound pollution.

But why do dolphins and whales swim into shallow waters?

For the answer, researchers from the University of Tasmania, Australia, have explored strands in the past 82 years in Southeast and Tasmania. They realized that the strands occurred most when the wind direction changed (occurring over a period of about 12 years).

The changing direction of the wind makes the water swept ashore bring a rich source of food. This may have led whales to shore.

Wind also causes sea storms and changing currents to cause disorientation of whales and dolphins. At that time, only the leader will be deflected, so the whole herd will be misled. Therefore, every strand of dolphins and whales usually number hundreds.

Antti Pulkkineno, an astrophysicist from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and his colleagues, said the causes were not enough to explain the stranding.

As a result, they have carried out on a larger scale and have discovered yet another natural cause as well as a "accomplice" that causes suicides of marine organisms to occur on a large scale. That is the Sun storm .

According to Pulkkinen, marine organisms use Earth's magnetic field to navigate in migratory trips.

Cyclical solar storms can affect the magnetic field or the Earth's volume. Massive bubbles that carry electricity released from the solar storm make satellite systems around Earth disabled. It even goes through the Earth's magnetosphere and affects the whole ocean.

Now, florists are studying the link between mass stranding of marine species and spatial weather phenomena. At that time, they could use observable data on the solar storm to warn soon about the phenomenon of stranded animals.

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