Dolphins Who Cannot Be Evacuated Are Surviving in Kharkiv Dolphinarium under Explosions
A baby dolphin burn during artillery shelling is living in Kharkiv Dolphinarium.
Around a dozen of marine mammals were evacuated from the war-torn city, but a baby dolphin and its parents are still staying in Kharkiv. The employees are concerned that the journey may become too stressful to the newborn Dream, TSN reports.
Beauty and Zeus are learning how to sing under the careful supervision of their trainer. They already can jump to catch a yummy or even dance a little. Three month ago, in the early March, they become parents. Dream, a baby dolphin, was born to the sounds of explosions, when Kharkiv was heavily shelled by the Russian troops. “One morning we just came here and saw that we have a baby. We were so glad that everything was ok. She is a very active girl and has already gained good body weight”, the carers share.
All this time, Dream has been growing in this very pool. Sometimes, the building was hit by the shell fragments and projectiles, a part of the building structure even collapsed, the trainers recall. The worst time was when two cluster missiles landed only fifteen meters away from here. The spectator arena was damaged, and the tent was riddled by the projectiles. "They suffered overwhelming stress. Someone were swimming in chaotic rush around the pool, someone just huddled themselves in a corner in the corner and looked frozen. They just shouted and did not respond neither to the trainers, nor to food, nor to anything," Vladyslav Lytnevskyi says.
“The feel the explosion even before it actually happens. We only hear the bang somewhere in the distance, but they sense it the different frequencies and respond to it even before we notice something”, the Dolphinarium employees share.
Because of Russian shelling, many aquariums at the Dolphinarium are now empty. Powerful explosions killed most of the aquatic life, especially small fish, which is simply getting stunned by the blasts.
The employees managed to evacuate 10 dolphins in large water tank to other collaborative Dolphinarium in Romania, however Beauty, Zeus and their baby daughter cannot leave their home pool right now. The employees are concerned that the evacuation trip can become too much of a stress for a baby dolphin.
A pair of whales weighing around one ton each are also staying in Kharkiv, since the employees simply have no technical capacities to arrange evacuations. During 4 months of continuous artillery attacks, their fosterlings have already got used to the explosions, the employees say, however they are still waiting for the first change to take them away to safety.
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