Touching Stories about Dolphins

a mother dolphin carrying its dead offspring

Many stories claimed that dolphins had saved or helped humans in some ways. There were stories about these highly intelligent creatures helping fishermen catch fish or protecting shipwreck survivors from sharks until rescue arrived. Pelorus Jack was one of these amazing dolphins. From 1888 to 1912, he would guide travellers to safety by swimming alongside their ship as it was passing through a dangerous channel to Cook Strait. On Octocber 30, 2004 in Whangarei, New Zealand, a group of lifeguards had been swimming when a pod of dolphins swam towards them.  The dolphins started circling them, which startled the four swimmers. When one of the lifeguards, Rob Howes, swam out of the circle formed by the dolphins, he saw a great white shark two meters away. It was then that he realized that the pod had been protecting them. The rescue team found them later on and brought them to safety.


In July, 2012, a video of an adult Chinese white dolphin carrying a dead baby dolphin has gone viral in the internet and was all over the news. This tear-jerking moment was witnessed by a group of people (probably tourists) at Qinzhou Sanniang Bay, a dolphin watching spot in Guangxi, China. The adult dolphin would swim under the dead baby and carry it on its back. The dead dolphin, which had a long wound on its belly, had slipped off several times from the mother’s back. The mother didn’t give up and would swim back to the sinking dolphin and replace it on its back.


I have never interacted with dolphins and have only observed them from afar in theme parks and zoos. I don’t dislike dolphins, but they aren’t my favourite animals either. That said, these stories have really touched my heart. It made me realize that even wild animals such as dolphins can sometimes think, act, and feel like humans do.