World’s tallest man saves dolphins
In a late but very strong contender for the title of most curious animal story of 2006, two dolphins in a Chinese aquarium have been saved thanks to the personal attentions of Bao Xishun, all 7 ft 8.95 inches of him
Bao Xishun, the world’s tallest man, reaches in to retrieve objects from the stomach of a sick dolphin at an aquarium in Fushun, China. Photograph: EyePress/AP
It’s lucky they had the world’s tallest man on call to lend a hand. Or rather, an extremely long arm.
In a late but very strong contender for the title of most curious animal story of 2006, two dolphins in a Chinese aquarium have been saved thanks to the personal attentions of Bao Xishun, all 7 ft 8.95 inches of him.
As the China Daily and others reported excitedly today, the drama began when the dolphins swallowed pieces of plastic from the edge of their aquarium pool in the north-eastern city of Fushun.
Attempts to remove the plastic using surgical instruments failed because the dolphins’ stomachs contracted in response.
Now, thought the vets, if only our arms were long enough to reach down and pull the plastic out… Hang on!
Several telephone calls later and Mr Bao, certified last year as the world’s tallest man, taking the title from previous holder, Radhouane Charbib of Tunisia, by a mere 2mm, was on his way, from his home in the province of Inner Mongolia.
The 55-year-old herdsmen was able to use an arm nearly three and a half foot long to reach into the dolphins’ mouths and pull out the plastic with his hands, as handlers held their jaws open with towels.
“The two dolphins are in very good condition now,” said a satisfied Chen Lujun, manager of the Royal Jidi Ocean World.
Mr Bao is somewhat of a celebrity in China, especially now he is officially the world’s tallest man.
Last month, the Xinhua news agency reported, he was “causing a stir” in Brazil when he went there for a book signing of the 2007 Guinness Book of Records.
Does this tale open more career options for Mr Bao, other than being a professional giant? Surely, zoos worldwide could use his talents – what do they do now when an elephant needs his back scratched and there are no stepladders around?
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2006/dec/14/anotherdolphin?intcmp=239
Comment:
14 December 2006 5:15PM
On a more serious note, it’s nice the dolphins were saved from a life threatening situation, but how many innocent creatures around the world are not so fortunate:
The U.N. Environment Program estimates that 46,000 pieces of plastic litter are floating on every square mile of the oceans. About 70% will eventually sink. An estimated 1 million seabirds choke or get tangled in plastic nets or other debris every year. About 100,000 seals, sea lions, whales, dolphins, other marine mammals and sea turtles suffer the same fate.
The figure of 46,000 is mind boggling – there are 139 million sq miles of ocean: that leaves a cool 6,400 billion tasty snacks out there for our marine life to chew on, and they’re unlikely to have the world’s tallset man on hand to “fish” the plastic out.
There are many kind people who are willing and ready to help, in this case Mr Bao. All it took was a few phone calls. The world is getting smaller with the high tech communication available to us. What we do with it can literally will make a difference in someone’s life…including of course saving lives.
Love this story!!
In this post, what crossed my mind is that there are actually hundreds if not thousands of ways to help the other live beings, be it human, animals or plants.
For example, as reported above, attempts to remove the plastic by surgical means were not successful but because of the vet’s creativity they were able to think of another way to help the dolphins, which were the hand of the world tallest man.
I am pretty sure that the idea was not taught in school but was figured out of creativity.
This also shows that by working with a group of people, we will be able to achieve what we want faster and more efficiently. The reason is simply because there are so many GREAT brains working together!
That leads me to another point, never underestimate your capabilities. Like in this case, who on earth would have figured out that the hand of the tallest man would come by so useful, saving the dolphins? I think even he did not ever imagine that.
All in all this bounds to one question, to work with effort or without effort?
That is a choice to be made every day and the positive answer to the question will lead us to places even we ourselves never knew we could reach.
In Fushun, China and in the Guinness Book of Records Bao Xishun the tallest man who is 7.895 ft and has saved 2 Dolphins in an Aquarium. He is 55 years old. Before Bao Xishun came in to the picture, the two dolphins had swallowed plastics into its stomach. The vet had tried several methods to get the plastics out but was not successful. The vet was desperate and tried to make phone calls all over trying to look for people who can help. So lucky he found Bao Xishun who was going home to Fushun from inner Mongolia. Bao uses his arm which is three and half feet long to dig into the dolphins stomach to pull out the plastics. Talking from Spiritual point of view the Dolphins must have the good karma to be saved.
This article tells me that anyone can help any other sentient being. The dolphins were really lucky but there are still many animals that suffer because of the littering of mankind. We should never underestimate on who you are. Everyone is special in their own way such as the worlds tallest man. He might have a lot of troubles in life because of his height but he still took the effort to place his hand in the dolphin’s mouth to remove the plastic. So, effort is also in here. He is special because only his hand was long enough to save the dolphin. I truly believe that Bao is a good human, a gentle giant, may he live for an extremely long life!
It is possible that these two dolphins might have in their past lives done some virtuous deeds that help to elimninate some of the bad karmas, thereby have the good opportunity to meet the tallest man on earth at such appropiate timing to save them from further suffering and death. An understanding of Karma, the end results of cause and effect, can effectively show us how to change our behaviour to gain the best advantage for both ourselves and others. In our daily lives we must try to always engage in virtuous actions, and discard non-virtue acts. Strong contemplation on Karma and the results of virtuous and non-virtuous actions provide us a powerful incentive to change. Karma is certain – in that positve karma will certainly bring positive results of happiness – negative ones, to all appropiate sufferings.
It is possible that these two dolphins might have in their past lives done some good virtuous deeds to eliminate some of their bad karma and therby, have the good fortune to meet the tallest man on earth to save them from death. An understanding of karma, the results of cause and effect, shows us how to change our behavourial attitude to gain the best advantage for both ourselves and others. In our daily lives we must try to engage in virtuous actions and discard non-virtuous actions. Strong contemplation on karma, the the results of non-virtuous actions to the results of virtuous actions, provides us a powerful incentive to change. Karma is certain, in that positive karma will certainly bring positive effect of happiness, negative ones to appropiate sufferings.
I just heard about a similar story/dolphin surgery from California. Clifford Ray (a basketball player) in 1978 saved a dolphin named “Mr. Spock” who had swallowed a screw while construction was done on his cage. Clifford Ray helped get that screw out. Bao had to outdo him by saving two dolphins!