THE pregnancy of Dolly the dolphin, the senior resident of Port Elizabeth's Bayworld Oceanarium, has been met with much relief from Bayworld officials. The pregnancy comes in the midst of controversial plans by the Oceanarium to capture wild dolphins to join their two residents.
Dolly is believed to be in her 18th week of gestation but still has another 40 weeks to go as the full gestation period for a bottlenose dolphin is one year.
Bayworld director Sylvia van Zyl announced last week that the Bayworld staff were greatly concerned that she might miscarry again, as she did last year.
"Dolly, at 31 years of age, is old in dolphin terms and this could be a factor which could lead to a premature termination of pregnancy."
The expectant father is Domino, Dolly's teenage son.
Dolly's pregnancy was first recognised during a regular ultrasound examination and was confirmed by follow-up examinations. Ultrasound scans are now showing signs of the heartbeat and skeletal structure.
(Rosemary Wilson)
