The Lonely Lives of Dolphin Lice
It’s hard to muster sympathy for lice. Most of the parasites seem to be doing fine—living, feeding and multiplying on their hapless hosts. But lice that live on dolphins have it tough. Their hosts are slippery and fast-moving; the lice spend their lonely lives clinging tight and hoping to meet just one other louse they can mate with. And while these parasites can teach scientists about the evolution and behavior of ocean mammals, it’s not clear how the lice themselves survive at all.
is a whale louse, but it doesn’t liveonly lives on dolphins. Whale lice do have some similarities to human lice: They can only live on a host’s body, and they spread when two animals rub against each other. But whale lice feed on skin, not blood. And their hosts live in the ocean.
