Dolphins Are Assh*les

Researchers recently caught four adult tuxuci dolphins ganging up on a mother dolphin and her baby in order to separate them and kill the infant.  Why?

In other animals, males often kill babies they did not father to induce their mother to become sexually receptive once more.

“Female dolphins become sexually receptive within a few days of losing a calf,” says Ms Nery. That, combined with the sexual interest shown by the group in the mother, suggests they killed the calf for similar reasons.

The U.S. government spends some $1.3 billion dollars a year on the Fish and Wildlife Service, much of which goes toward the study and protection of endangered species.  Hey dolphins, we can’t help you if you refuse to help yourselves.  Sounds to me like we shouldn’t even try. 

The play-by-play at the crime scene:

Two adults separated the baby from its mother. The female began to take evasive action, swimming to try to avoid the interlopers. But the other four adults herded her, hitting her body with their flukes and ramming her.

Any attempt by the mother to escape towards her offspring was prevented by the herding pack, which chased her and blocked her path.

The female dolphin frequently exposed her belly at the water surface, either as a passive behaviour or to signal that she would be sexually receptive to the males.

Four metres away, the two remaining adults rammed the calf and held it underwater. They then threw it in the air and again pushed it underwater. Afterwards the calf was disorientated and swam with difficulty. Although the researchers saw the mother a few days later, they never again saw the calf.

“We believe the injuries the newborn calf received from this encounter were fatal,” the researchers report in the journal Marine Mammal Science.

Next time you go to Sea World, make sure you tell a dolphin to go f*ck itself.

Source: BBC.

And why not check out the blog F*ck You, Penguin while you’re at it?