A few years ago, something really amazing happened. Back in 2011, a group of sperm whales took in a deformed bottle-nose dolphin as one of their own.
About 1000 miles off the coast of Portugal lie the Azores, a string of volcanic islands in the North Atlantic. Researchers in the area were watching a group of sperm whales when they saw the dolphin with a spinal deformity traveling along with them. According to National Geographic, it stayed with them for eight days, playing with both adults and calves, foraging for food, and rubbing against the whales.
Although dolphins are incredibly social animals, relationships between this particular species of whale and dolphin are exceedingly rare. There are a number of theories as to why the whales would have allowed the dolphin to travel with them for so long – the most likely, researchers said, is that they needed a babysitter. Sperm whales always leave one whale with their young when they dive, as the calves can’t dive as deep or stay down for as long as the adults.
Another, less likely theory is that the sperm whales wanted the dolphin for protection from predators – such as killer whales – in the North Atlantic. Although sperm whale predators aren’t common in the area, they do exist, and the theory goes that because dolphins can hear much higher frequencies, they would be able to warn the sperm whales sooner.
What ever the reason, it’s touching to see cross-species interactions like this. Remember the gorilla that played mom to the cat? Or the tiger and the pig? Yeah, we love them too.
