Dolphin Confidential: Confessions of a Field Biologist by Dr. Maddalena Bearzi, recounts an incident which saw a dolphin break away from a group to save a young girl in peril, only to be joined in support from the rest of the dolphin family.
An extract tells the tale of a group of researchers who were studying the behavior of bottlenose dolphins off the coast of California.
One of the dolphins spotted a girl drowning, and left the group to help her. His fellow flippered friends then followed suit.
The girl was ‘barely speaking English,’ fully clothed and reportedly with a suicide note in her pocket.
Dr Bearzi wrote: ‘That day I witnessed coastal bottlenose dolphins suddenly leave their feeding activities and head offshore. And in doing so, they led us to save a dying girl, some three miles offshore. Coincidence?’
‘If we hadn’t found her, if the dolphins hadn’t led us offshore when they did, to that specific place, she would have died.’
There have been several incidents of dolphins ‘saving’ humans from harm, more notably from sharks, though according to research dolphins have a ‘natural curiosity’ for humans.