Four days ago we encountered Common Dolphins as usual. Nothing out of the ordinary until a small group of Bottlenose Dolphins came charging onto the scene.
We realized they initiated a chase and few minutes later we noticed they had separated a Common Dolphin calf (with fetal folds visible) from its mother and the rest of the group!
The calf anxiously tried to escape and avoid the Bottlenose, but without success. It even got rammed out of the water a few times.
We expected a sad outcome, but found out the calf was still alive today (July 29th, 2020)!!!
Full of new scratches on the beak, melon and flanks, but alive.
The Bottlenose Dolphins seemed less aggressive and we observed the calf swimming in a typical infant position without real issues. It’s definitely not the first time this has been observed in the wild, but a special sighting nonetheless. Hopefully we’ll encounter this group again in the future to see if the calf will survive this situation ????
-Sanne
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