Meet The Dolphin With The Prothesthetic Tail!

As we all know, dolphins are adorable and clever creatures that occasionally get beached onto the shores of Florida. But most make steady recoveries when rescued by Seaworld, and various other marine-rescue services. But this is a story about a dolphin with a special story.

In 2005, a young bottle-nose dolphin was washed up onto the coast of Florida after being caught in a crab trap, which badly damaged her tail fin. After being rescued by the Clearwater Marine Rescue team, but unfortunatley, Winter's tail was so badly damaged they had to amputate it, leaving her unable to swim. However, this young dolphin wasn't going to give up that easily as she taught herself how to swim again. She did this by using side to side motions of her stubby tail like a shark, rather than up and down motions like a dolphin.

On the downside, this new way of moving around will seriously damage her spine, and may possibly kill her because like us, her nervous system is encased in her spine. So with help of a prothesthetic limb designer, they try to make Winter a new tail, made from the exact stuff that we use to build prothesthetic limbs for the army. After several attempts, they finally give Winter her new tail, and she loves it! But now, they are still developing new technology that helps Winter, and many other limbless animals to be like their brothers and sisters.

http://www.seewinter.com/winter/media/webcam-3e 

Click on the URL to see
Winter and her friends Live!!