It is not natural for a dolphin to survive without a tail. But, the year-old dolphin ‘Winter’ at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium in Florida has proved as an exception even after losing one of the very significant part of her anatomy.
Caught in a crab trap along Florida’s east coast, the rope wrapped around her tail to cut off the blood supply, which eventually fell off bit by bit over the weeks!
Prosthetic specialist Kevin Carrol invented a ‘latex tail’ for the tailless dolphin, surviving the loss of her powerful tail flukes. Amazingly, recreating nature’s this powerful swimming mechanism, it turned out to be a lot tougher than what he himself expected!
The new, one of the most powerful swimming tail made for Winter is called MacGyvering - rightly named after the TV hero Angus MacGyver, whose main asset is his practical application of scientific knowledge and inventive use of common items.
Mike Walsh, Winter’s lead veterinarian and a program manager at the University of Florida’s aquatic animal health program said,
We put together a team who doesn’t know what ‘no’ means. As long as you’re willing to try, you can make a big difference.
Not just that! Carroll also developed a ‘gel sleeve’ to stick the new prosthetic to the 18-month-old Winter’s tail, that did not irritate her sensitive skin. It is with the help of suction - similarly as a rubber surgical glove grips a human hand - the sleeve is made to stick to Winter’s tail.
Now, winter like any of her companion, can flaunt the new amputation moving like an alligator’s undulating swimming style and a shark’s side-to-side tail swipes.
