NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A deaf dolphin found stranded in March off the Louisiana coast is being taken to live among other dolphins at a facility in Mississippi.
Suzanne Smith is the rescue coordinator at the Audubon Nature Institute. She says the 2 ½-year-old dolphin will be taken Tuesday to the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies because he would be unable to survive in the wild.
She says deafness is probably the reason the 6-½-foot-long marine mammal was stranded on a mudflat where researchers found him March 6. He was deaf in the frequencies of dolphin sonar and was severely sunburned.
The animal was so weak that he had to be kept in shallow water, with a staffer present at all times to help him.
The animal's hearing was tested when he regained strength.
