Dubai: The man who calls himself the baby dolphin's grandfather, sits with eyes cast downwards, hands clasped together. "We've lost our baby. What else can I say?" he asks, with a helpless look in his eyes.
The Alexander Zanin XPRESS met was a far cry from the proud grand-dad showing off his newest baby just over a month ago. "She lived for two months and six days and within that short period brought so much joy to everyone," says the head marine mammal specialist at Dubai Dolphinarium.
Heart attack
The dolphin calf, who still hadn't been named, allegedly died of a heart attack on Thursday, December 16, at approximately 6pm, just as the last show of the day had commenced. "One minute the baby was playing in the pool with Ksyusha, her mother, and the next she was gone," says Zanin. "Within 25 seconds, she was gone. That's all it took between life and death."
Preliminary necroscopy reports indicate the onset of a sudden heart attack. Results show the death resulted from circumstances beyond anyone's control.
Zanin says, "Quite simply, her heart couldn't keep up with her body, which was growing at a healthy rate. She went from 7kg at birth on October 10 to nearly 35kg at the time of death, with a fat thickness of 35mm. While her body continued to grow, her heart didn't. When her body was smaller, the heart was able to supply enough oxygen to her brain. As she grew, the heart wasn't able to keep pace."
The insufficient growth of the upper respiratory area, lungs and heart was what resulted in the sudden heart attack.
At the time of going to press, mum Ksyusha, although reunited with Senya, the father of the calf, as well as the rest of the pod, is still lactating. The pup's trainer, Marsha, is in shock and unable to talk to the press. Her husband and fellow trainer Alexi, who was the first to notice there was something wrong with the calf on that fateful evening, is also keeping silent. "We are all in shock," says Zanin. "It's heartbreaking for us to lose the little one. When I call her my granddaughter, it isn't just words. I bought her parents, Ksyusha and Senya in 1997. They've been like my children for over 13 years. I feel like I've lost a member of my family."
Today Ksusha is back to normal and is performing again. "Dolphins are not like humans. They don't hold on to pain. "
The calf was Ksyusha's fifth. While two are alive and performing in dolphinariums in the Ukraine, the rest didn't survive the six-month period. "One died within a week of birth, the other lived six months, and now this little one, gone at just two months," says Zanin.
