A LONELY dolphin who may have been sexually frustrated has been blamed for a spike in attacks on swimmers in a Japanese coastal town.
Bottlenose dolphins are believed to be behind 18 attacks near the town of Mihama this year, including an elementary school child who needed 20 stitches on his finger.
At least six people were injured in last year’s attack, which left one swimmer with broken ribs. Another person was injured in the 2022 attack.
This has led officials to warn that the mammals can not only “bite you with their sharp teeth and cause you to bleed”, but can also “drag you into the sea, which can be life-threatening”.
Despite their reputation as friendly animals, dolphin attacks can be fatal. In 1994, a dolphin in Brazil attacked two male swimmers who tried to ride it, killing one and injuring the other. The dolphin, nicknamed Tião, is believed to have injured at least 22 people in the past.
Tadamichi Morisaka, a professor of cetology at Japan’s Mie University, said the dorsal fin of the dolphin seen biting a man’s finger on a beach in Tsuruga – a port city next to Mihama – was the same as the dorsal fin of a 2.5-meter-long dolphin seen off the coast of Fukui prefecture last year.
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Dorsal fins are like dolphin fingerprints, as each has distinctive ridges, bumps, and pigmentation.
“It is reasonable to assume that it is the same individual, as the injury to its tail fin is similar to that of a dolphin seen off the coast last year, and it is rare for dolphins, which usually move in groups, to be alone for such a long time,” said Prof Morisaka.
He added that male bottlenose dolphins communicate by “biting each other”. “They are not trying to hurt humans, but they are using the dolphin way of communicating with humans,” he said.
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There have also been various theories put forward as to why the same creature is behind these attacks – including a desire for sex.
“Bottlenose dolphins are highly social animals and this sociality can be expressed in very physical ways,” said Dr Simon Allen, a biologist and lead researcher of the Shark Bay Dolphin Research project.
“As with humans and other social animals, hormonal fluctuations, sexual frustration, or a desire for dominance can drive dolphins to injure people they interact with. Because they are very strong animals, this can cause serious injury to humans.”
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Dr Allen added the dolphin may have been ostracized from its own community and sought alternative companions.
Dr Matthias Hoffmann-Kuhnt, a marine mammal expert at the National University of Singapore, said dolphins could also be acting in self-defense.
“Often, in my experience, it’s more of a defensive behavior where people get too close to the dolphins and don’t know how to behave,” he said, referring to reports of people trying to ride the animals or sticking their fingers in the dolphins’ blowholes.
“So it is not surprising that these animals then become aggressive or at least protective of humans in the water,” he said.
It could also be that the dolphin had previously had a bad experience with humans and is now projecting that relationship onto other humans it encounters, Dr Hoffmann-Kuhnt said.
“They have a good memory, similar to elephants who will remember who has abused them before,” he added. (BBC/Z-3)
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