How baby dolphins play games with pufferfish

Tue, 05 Jul 2016

By Tangalooma Island Resort

How baby dolphins play games with pufferfish

Calypso, Tinkerbell’s latest little calf – Born 02/11/2015

Over the last few weeks Calypso has been entertaining guests watching the dolphin feed from the jetty by playing with puffer fish. This behavior is quite common among young dolphin calves and great to watch.

Dolphin calves will then all start a game when they throw the poor puffer fish

The calves will find a puffer fish hiding underneath the sand with their echolocation ability, (common puffer fish are approx 10cm in length), and they will then torment the puffer fish until it blows  itself up so it looks like a ping pong ball that floats to the surface. This is a self defense mechanism for this fish and doesn’t hurt it in any way.

The dolphin calves will then all start a game when they throw the poor puffer fish  to each other by holding it in their moth, and flicking their heads and the puffer fish fly’s through the air a couple of meters, lands in the water with a splash and then its on again, to see who the first calf will be to re-catch the puffer fish and throw it again to the excitement of resort guests watching from the jetty.

Occasionally  some of the older dolphins like to join in on the game. Once the dolphins do become tired of this game, they will let the little puffer fish go, the puffer fish will think that it is free and then will start to deflate and swim off as fast as it can, but then it’s on again for our cheeky little calves and they will catch and start to torment it again.

This game is actually a lesson for the calves as it teaches them to develop their echolocation and fish catching skills

Now they will never eat the puffer fish as they know if they do it can make them very sick as puffer fish have toxins within their skin and liver, so they will only use it as a toy when they are playing. Surprisingly, this game is actually a lesson for the calves as it teaches them to develop their echolocation and fish catching skills.

Calypso is very playful and loves to swim around and chase the other young calves in the feed area. We are still uncertain whether Calypso is a female/or male, although his behavior does indicate he could be a male due to his mischievous and cheeky personality. It will be another few months before we will be able to  confirm this.

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