Crowded Dolphins Form Life Raft Try To Help Dying Friend - Amazing Dolphins News Video Clip

Let's See Amazing Dolphins News Video Clip - Crowded Dolphins Form Life Raft Try To Help Dying Friend

Everybody's favourite cetacean just got a little more lovable. For the first time, dolphins have been spotted teaming up to try to rescue an injured group member. The act does not necessarily mean dolphins are selfless or can empathise with the pain of their kin, however.

Crowded Dolphins Form Life Raft Try To Help Dying Friend - Amazing Dolphins News Video Clip

Kyum Park of the Cetacean Research Institute in Ulsan, South Korea, and colleagues were surveying cetaceans in the Sea of Japan in June 2008. They spent a day following a group of about 400 long-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus capensis).

In the late morning they noticed that about 12 dolphins were swimming very close together. One female was in difficulties: it was wriggling and tipping from side to side, sometimes turning upside-down. Its pectoral flippers seemed to be paralysed.

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.

After another few minutes some of the helper dolphins left. The injured dolphin soon dropped into a vertical position. The remaining helpers appeared to try and prop it up, possibly to keep its head above the surface, but it soon stopped breathing. Five dolphins stayed with it and continued touching its body, until it sank out of sight.

Crowded Dolphins Form Life Raft Try To Help Dying Friend - Amazing Dolphins News Video Clip