Are dolphins dangerous?
Yes they most certainly can. Caution always needs to be exercised near ANY wild animal, including dolphins. Don’t forget that dolphins are predatory animals and definitely have a violent streak that the public never hear about (or don’t want to hear about). For some reason, people just don’t like to think that dolphins are rough, aggressive animals. The reality is that most dolphins have a very aggressive nature. In the wild, infanticide (the killing of infants), rape, kidnappings, rather brutal killings of porpoises and other dolphins, bites etc are all common behavior. Look on any openminded website about dolphins and you will find stacks upon stacks of evidence and information about this side of dolphins. Infact, the Bottlenose dolphin, the species that played “flipper” is thought by many scientists to be the most aggressive species. There are many documented attacks by wild dolphins on humans (such as people being dragged underwater, pulled out to sea, being sexually harrassed by a
While trained dolphins are believed to be tamed, they still are wild animals and should be treated with respect. Wild animals are known to be unpredictable, especially when in their own environment, while hunting or protecting their calves. In fact, they behave as any mammal would, humans included. They are protective of their family, act in a survival mode and are territorial. Don’t think of them as “Flipper” but as “dolphins”.
They are very large, wild and strong predators. Of course they can be dangerous. They have some characteristics that we see as human-like, but they are not pets and inflict injuries on people every year. On the flip side, they have also been known to protect and help people in trouble in the ocean. For this reason we tend to see them as kind and gentle, but we should keep the killer aspect of them in mind as well. Tigers can be big, soft and loveable until one of them rips the throat out of the person who raised it. Even deer can become vicious and dangerous. And I think I heard that dogs injure more people every year than all other animals put together. So don’t ever think that an animal will not hurt you. They probably won’t, but they might and you need to understand that.
