Animals: Dolphin Tale: Building Winter's Prosthetic Tail
In this video, there wasn't an article it was just a video. In the video it basically talked about Winter the dolphin and how she had amputated her tail and how they were trying many different ideas on the ‘bionic tail’. Here is the story: Winter the dolphin, stared in the movie “The Dolphin Tail”. She was just 3 months old when she was found on a beach in Florida with a fishing line wrapped around her tail witch cut off all of her circulation in her tail(in 2005). She adapted to not having a tail so she had started moving her tail left and right to move around, but the problem was that those movements didn’t suet dolphins (they caused pressure on the vertebra). That movement was suited more for sharks than for dolphins. This also added extra risk for the spinal cord. When they put extra body parts on humans, they would put ell liner because of our sensitive skin. They came up with a very flexible, durable material that can be in salt water and that doesn’t harm Winters skin. It is also being used on humans patients now. They Made 16 different versions (prototypes) of the ‘bionic tail’. Now every day trainers do stretching and workouts with Winter to regain the muscles that were once there and for her to have the ability swim like a normal dolphin.
This is a very interesting topic. What was the material that they used? Did it say? I think it is so great that people use these prosthetics on animals to give them a better quality of life. I can't wait to see the movie. You did not put a reflection about it, what are your thoughts?
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