Bao Xishun, a Mongolian herdsman, is the world's tallest man at 2.36m (7ft 9in), according to Guinness World Records. He was brought in to tend the dolphins at a centre at Fushun, in north-east China.
The creatures had plastic detritus lodged in their stomachs, disrupting their metabolism. According to BBC News, veterinary instruments had failed because the creatures would keep contracting their stomachs when the long forceps were inserted.
It was calculated that Xishun's 1.06m-long arm could reach the plastic. With their heads held back and towelling wrapped around their teeth so that Xishun could not be bitten, the herdsman duly obliged.
Certainly a gentle giant, Xishun succeeded in guiding his hand carefully down the dolphins' gullets, reacting sensitively to any contractions and reaching their stomachs, where he was able to feel the foreign materials and draw them out.
After the procedures the animals were reported to have improved greatly, having lost their appetites and been depressed while the blockage persisted. A vet said that some small pieces of plastic might be left behind, but that these would be of a size that would now pass successfully through the animals' digestive systems.
|
