Friday, April 4, 2008

Swimming with dolphins

I am always fascinated by the intelligence of dolphins. They have been depicted as mellow sea mammals with loving attitudes, how wrong can the media be about that! Flipper is the one that comes to mind when most older adults think of dolphins. A Lassie with fins!

The dolphin is a complex mammal with a vicious attitude about sex. They play it rough and will often leave scars on their mate. They are a strong muscled mammal and it amazes me that people on vacation would even want to go swimming with these creatures. It is not just a matter of putting on your one piece swimwear and taking a dip in the pool. There have been countless accounts of "tame" (and I use the word loosely) dolphins attacking humans in swim pools.

All of this does not take into account of how badly the captive dolphin is treated by it's caregivers. Some have extremely small pools and inadequate nutrition. If that wasn't enough to put a dolphin into a bad mood then just put a human on vacation in the same pool and see what happens.

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