Dolphin has ball removed while awake, as they can only breathe when conscious

In this otherwise a bit silly (and sad) story about how a dolphin in captivity at the Nanjing Andover Underwater World in China swallowed a ball while performing, resulting in a 3-hour-long operation involving rope and hook and burning of the ball, a basketball player with extra long and steel wire … we get this very intriguing information:

As human beings, we breathe involuntarily and if we choose not to breathe, the body will take in air automatically. Whales and dolphins however, are conscious breathers and must decide when to breathe. This means they have to be conscious. Such was the case with Jiang Bo, who was sedated but awake, during the multiple attempts to remove the ball from his stomach.

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