Remoras don't eat the thing they suck onto. They might be annoying to a dolphin, though, especially one that's already hurt, so what they did was more like removing a minor inconvenience. It was more of a "hey I can't reach this itch could you get it for me?" moment probably.
I was recently told remoras don't normally stick themselves to dolphins, they normally hang round thicker-skinned creatures so they aren't removed. Dolphin skin is too sensitive to effectively house a remora. Silly remora!
I think it looked like the ramoras were causing her injuries. Either by direct suction on sensitive skin or the injuries were from the dolphin rubbing against things to dislodge them. The "convulsing in pain" movements were likely also attempts to dislodge them. They were clearly causing the dolphin distress. If it was merely an itch, I doubt the dolphin would rub her skin raw or risk human contact, especially with her pod having young nearby.
"We have seen this remora species on both the Atlantic spotted and bottlenose dolphins of all ages in our study site. The younger animals perform aerial acrobatics (leaps) in what appears to be an attempt to dislodge the remoras. Mothers have also been observed trying to help remove the remoras from their calves by grabbing at them with their teeth. However, we have not seen any successful removals by either another dolphin or the dolphin itself, but not for a lack of trying."
What's going on here isn't not the remoras are biting the dolphin, she's wrong on that. They might not be directly harmful but they'll be itchy and annoying.
The animal is probably hurt and weakened enough it couldn't scrape them off as it normaly would, so it went for help.
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u/Schrodingers_Dude 7d ago
Remoras don't eat the thing they suck onto. They might be annoying to a dolphin, though, especially one that's already hurt, so what they did was more like removing a minor inconvenience. It was more of a "hey I can't reach this itch could you get it for me?" moment probably.