Dolphin Rescues Stranded Whales

We’ve talked before about a dolphin’s capacity for altruism, but this story proves the dolphin truly is the lifeguard of the sea.

Dolphins have been known to save people from drowning and shark attacks. Now we know they extend the same courtesy to other marine mammals.

A friendly dolphin named Moko, who makes his home near a beach in Wellington, New Zealand, rescued two stranded pygmy whales this week.

The unfortunate whales had beached themselves on Mahia Beach, about 300 miles from Wellington. Just when conservation workers had finally gotten them back in the water, the whales became stranded on a sandbar. Officials and observers tried without success for over an hour to move them off the sandbar and toward a channel 200 feet away. Things were getting desperate — euthanasia desperate — when Moko came along and persuaded the two whales to follow him into the channel and out in to the open ocean.

“Moko just came flying through the water and pushed in between us and the whales,” Juanita Symes, another rescuer, told The Associated Press. “She got them to head toward the hill, where the channel is. It was an amazing experience.”

Watch the conservation worker tell Moko’s fascinating story in his own words. If Moko doesn’t convince us of the intelligence and kind nature of the dolphin, I don’t know what will. Full of grace and generosity, they are truly one of the most special species on Earth.