We've heard of shark attacks but its perhaps hard to imagine a dolphin actually attacking people. The mammal is widely believed to be especially friendly towards humans. There are many many tales of how dolphins saved or helped people on the seas.
But swimmers on the beaches in Fukui prefecture in Japan are being attacked by dolphins, or a single male dolphin if corroborations through photographs are accurate.
As reported by Nature magazine, 18 people have been injured in attacks from the dolphin just this year. This has brought number of those injured in last three years to 29. The injuries range from bite marks to broken bones.
Based on the photographs it is believed that the culprit is a male Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus). The dolphin shows up at the beaches, bites people and swims away, only to strike somewhere else.
So why is the dolphin attacking swimmers?
As per Tadamichi Morisaka, a dolphin ecologist at Mie University quoted by Nature, Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins have a peculiar behavior where two male members of a pod form a bond that can last a lifetime. It's just like a close friendship. Such dolphins can even swim and play together.
But what's the deal with biting?
In such 'bro-pairs' among dolphins, gentle biting is considered to be a sign of affection.
So the dolphin biting people on Japanese beaches may actually be showing its affection to humans. It's just that we are too weak physically.
A bite considered 'gentle' by a dolphin can scare the hell out of humans as it can be quite forceful by human standards. So an affectionate dolphin peck may yet bring major sorrow and the person may have to spend weeks in hospital.
The Japanese better be careful.
