January 25, 2013 12:30 pm
Leave No Dolphin Behind: Dolphin Pod Carries Injured Member Until She Stops Breathing
Brace yourselves, because you’re about to get real sad. In 2008, researchers tracking a pod of around 400 dolphins, says New Scientist, spotted one that looked really hurt: “it was wriggling and tipping from side to side, sometimes turning upside-down. Its pectoral flippers seemed to be paralysed.” The female dolphin, seen in the video above, was having a lot of trouble swimming and kept flipping upside down or sinking into the water.
Coming to her rescue were a dozen other dolphins.
The other dolphins crowded around it, often diving beneath it and supporting it from below. After about 30 minutes, the dolphins formed into an impromptu raft: they swam side by side with the injured female on their backs. By keeping the injured female above water, they may have helped it to breathe, avoiding drowning.
Alas, the pod’s efforts to save their ailing friend could stave off the inevitable no longer. The female dolphin, say the researchers, eventually just stopped breathing. “Five dolphins stayed with it and continued touching its body, until it sank out of sight.”
According to New Scientist, some researchers think that dolphins are capable of mourning and of understanding the pain that another dolphin is going through.
Photo: Know Your Meme
More from Smithsonian.com:
Dolphins Go Hunting In Fishers’ Nets
Who’s Murdering And Mutilating These Dolphins?
Should Dolphins and Whales Have Human Rights?
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We can see how instinct in mammals to help others in their family require strength, endurance and compassion. Maybe more of these encounters will be recorded. Take a look at the brave dolphin who asks an underwater diver to help untangle him from fishing lines. http://ht.ly/h8xrV Are the species talking to each other? Is this the beginning of peaceful co-existence? Blessings, Debby
Comment by Debby Bruck — January 25, 2013 @ 2:47 pm
This is a very interesting story, and, of course, dolphins, like many other species are more than capable of understanding the emotions of mourning, feeling pain and pleasure, and possess many more complex social behaviours.
I think it’s important to note that this individual was female, she was not an “it”.
Comment by Carolyn — January 25, 2013 @ 9:04 pm
Lovely nature. So sad there was no happy ending.
Comment by Jaime — January 26, 2013 @ 1:40 am
Why do you put this meme picture after the article? Are you a comedy we or what?
Comment by coso — January 26, 2013 @ 5:08 am
Can someone please explain to me why the people filming this didn’t help that injured dolphin?
Comment by Ariane Rosos — January 26, 2013 @ 6:36 pm