I believe that many friends have watched such a video, which records a group of dolphins chasing a poor puffer fish, biting and poking, and the title often reads "Addicts in the ocean gather crowds to obtain puffer toxins. "Pleasure", many people are suddenly opened up with new cognitions. It turns out that the seemingly gentle dolphins have such a negative side.
But, are the dolphins chasing pufferfish really for the so-called "getting pleasure"? Don't rush to a conclusion, let's analyze it first.
The mysterious puffer toxin
Tetrodotoxin is one of the most dangerous neurotoxins in the world. It was once considered to be the most toxic non-protein neurotoxin in nature. Toxins are very dangerous to be absorbed into the body. It can directly act on the sodium ion channels in the nerve endings and the nerve center. Strong3strong blocks the normal nerve excitement transmission. Poisoned persons often have a clear mind, but the body is not called at all. It is easy to cause respiratory paralysis and endanger life.
How toxic is this puffer toxin? We generally use LD50 to measure the strength of a toxin, which means half the lethal dose. The LD50 of the familiar Asian poisonous king coral snake is 0.08mg/kg. A 70kg adult only needs 5.6mg to be life-threatening. But the LD50 of tetrodotoxin is 0.008mg/kg , even if the intake is very small, it is also very dangerous.
However, puffer fish toxins are not synthesized by puffer fish themselves. They are also ingested and enriched from food. As a non-protein toxin, tetrodotoxin is very stable. Strong3strong can only 20-60 at high temperatures above 220°C. Minutes or in an alkaline environment to break ,The puffer fish has evolved the ability to store this toxin to protect itself. The toxin can always exist in the puffer fish body stably, so it is generally strictly forbidden to eat wild puffer fish.
Can dolphins really get pleasure from playing with puffer
The pleasure is because the brain nerve cells secrete a substance called dopamine, which can interact with some special neurites The touch is combined to produce a pleasant sensation. Of course, this wonderful sensation comes quickly and disappears quickly. Strong3strong soon dopamine is recovered by the nerve cells, so many people are struggling for this kind of pleasure blindly. Looking back in the abyss.
But can dolphins get pleasure from the puffer toxin? In the video we saw, the dolphins did show blurred eyes, slow movements and even fecal incontinence, which are consistent with the performance after "drug-taking". However, through the understanding of the puffer toxin in the above, It may be that we humans have over-interpreted it.
First of all, tetrodotoxin is mainly contained in the skin, liver and spleen, blood, ovary, eyeballs and other different tissues. Dolphins can obtain very little toxins when chasing pufferfish, except for the blood that flows out when they bite. Ingesting a little, of course, this little is enough to have an effect.
However, we may have overlooked a problem. For non-protein toxins like tetrodotoxin, cannot penetrate the blood-brain barrier of the brain . The barrier between this layer of plasma and cerebrospinal fluid can protect the brain. Invasion of harmful substances, this is also the reason for people who accidentally eat puffer and poisoned in many cases, which is often the reason for their clear thinking. To get pleasure, it must enter the brain, , but because the blood-brain barrier puffer toxin cannot enter the brain, how can it stimulate the nerve cells to secrete dopamine?
So there is a high probability that after the dolphin ingested a trace of puffer toxin,Poisoning leads to sluggish movements. Another effect of the puffer toxin is that has a local stimulating effect on the intestine , leading to the "ugly state" of fecal incontinence.
The dolphins are not for "pleasure", so why do they chase pufferfish? Dolphins are marine mammals with high IQ. Their brain weight can reach , which is equivalent to 1.6 kg of the human brain, accounting for 1.19% of their body weight. It accounts for 0.7% of body weight, so dolphins are obviously much smarter than chimpanzees. The high IQ behavior of many dolphins is obvious to all.
Conclusion
Dolphins chasing puffer fish are most likely because of curiosity they poke the fish covered with spines, and the puffer fish’s defense mechanism will make itself bulge into a ball. With the playfulness of dolphins, the chasing back and forth is like we humans picking up a can on the side of the road. Strong3strong can’t explain what’s fun, but it just can’t stop playing .
Many people may also think that the puffer dolphins chase is not the puffer that we usually catch in fresh water. In fact, the puffer is a migratory habit and can live in both sea water and fresh water. . The puffer fish will enter the river through the estuary to spawn after it matures, and then return to the sea when the juvenile fish is mature.
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