Dog and Dolphin

Wm. Murray emailed me this interesting photo (click to enlarge). Can you guess if it's real or fake?
image
Answer: Apparently it's real (when I first looked at it I just assumed it was fake). From Wm.'s email: The dog and the bottle-nose dolphin were pals who "met" about every week or ten days at the beach in front of the Meridian Club on Pine Cay in the Turks & Caicos. My wife and I vacationed there in May 1990 and took many pictures of this strange pairing. We were told that it had been going on for some years prior to our visit. The dog (Taffy) would begin furious barking and race to the water's edge. Moments later the dolphin (JoJo) would come to the shore and they would romp together until enough people got into the water and the dolphin would swim away. Initially he(?) would move a ways along the shore away from the crowd with the dog following, then eventually leave after the people caught up to him a few times. JoJo would nip at Taffy's legs and Taffy would jump on the dolphin's back, leaving scratch marks. The whole thing would last 8-10 minutes and we saw it three different times over about twenty days. (I've since reused JoJo's image for a few of my hoax shots to simulate a shark in the pool or creek.)

Animals Photos

Posted on Fri Jan 28, 2005


Comments

Well, I'd rather have a Bottle-Nose in front of me than a Bull shark inside of me.
Posted by Chadds Ford Prefect  on  Fri Jan 28, 2005  at  06:05 PM
For the unread, I believe that CFPinAS is making a pun on Ernest Hemingway's famous quote, "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy." Very good, sir or ma'am. I have no problem believing this story. Grew up near wild dolphins, who seasonally had very peculiar behavior relating to other species at will, including dogs and humans. I hear that when you dive with them, however, (which I've never been priveledged to do, yet), the diving instructors *always* warn you not to touch anywhere around their lower abdominal area. It seems that dolphins get horny REALLY easily, and can easily mistake you for either a potential mate, (usually female behavior), or a threat to their acquisition of one, (usually male behavior). In either case, they can get injurious with little warning.
Posted by stork  on  Fri Jan 28, 2005  at  09:22 PM
I meant, injurious to the human swimmer, of course. They seem to do just fine on their own with sex. Witness all the twin calves swimming by their mothers' sides in the late Spring/early Summer off the eastern U.S. coast. A Beautiful sight!
Posted by stork  on  Fri Jan 28, 2005  at  09:30 PM
Wasn't it Dorothy Parker who said that? (the lobotomy thing)
Posted by The Curator  in  San Diego  on  Fri Jan 28, 2005  at  10:57 PM
Could very well have been Ms Parker, Alex in S.D.- Word is down in Key West, that it was E.H. that first said that, in a rare reporter's inteview, who asked him why he was constantly drinking straight hard liqour; but what's an old usedtobe hippie wannabe supposed to know, anyway?
Posted by stork  on  Sat Jan 29, 2005  at  12:27 AM
REminds me of that one with the orca whale on the boat.

~Yaanu~
Posted by Yaanu  on  Sat Jan 29, 2005  at  05:54 AM
stork, I think that liquor may have been the tasty absinthe, which is known to make one swim with "bottles" of some sort, nose or otherwise.
Posted by Chadds Ford Prefect  on  Sat Jan 29, 2005  at  08:46 AM
Could very well have been, tho probably tempered with a bottle of Puerto Rican 151 rum as a chaser! I don't know, I'm no historian on E.H. Just posted what I'd heard many years ago, truth or not. Truth - what's that??
Posted by stork  on  Sat Jan 29, 2005  at  10:19 AM
Dolphins & manatees are incredibly friendly. The manatees mostly are looking for food, so they don't swim away if you come close...they'll hang around until the food is gone & then move on. Dolphins are pickier. They might not mind swimming near a person or two...but if someone else shows up...they take off. They also swim alongside boats pretty often. It's pretty standard fare in my neck of the woods.
Posted by Maegan  on  Sun Jan 30, 2005  at  06:45 AM
unbelieveable this is not a dolphin its looks like a shark 🐍
Posted by Krista  on  Fri Mar 04, 2005  at  07:22 AM
It is a flippin dolphin...how duz that look like a shark tu u???!!!
Posted by llllllllppppppp  on  Mon May 29, 2006  at  08:09 AM
it kinda duz look like a shark actually
Posted by jdhfkjdhjdhslfhskdjh  on  Sun Dec 10, 2006  at  09:42 AM
ha ha ha NO...IT REALLY LOOKS NOTH-ING LIKE A SHARK BUT W/E
Posted by lllllllpppppp  on  Sun Jan 21, 2007  at  11:19 AM
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