A lone dolphin that has attracted swimmers at Cemetery Beach, East End, Grand Cayman should not be approached, even though it would seem to be “a fun thing” to swim with the mammal.

On Wednesday 22), Ollie Dubock said on CITN-Cayman27, “It’s a much larger animal than people realise and although it exhibits behaviours you would see in a movie, nodding its head and flapping its fins –that’s actually signs of aggression and not signs of playfulness.

“It’s a very powerful animal and I understand people love them and they want to swim with them and have the experience, but it’s a wild animal and it is perhaps approaching adolescents and would perhaps be a little more energetic than it has been previously.

“So please don’t approach the dolphin. If it comes to you give it a wide berth all it to swim around but please don’t ever approach it or touch it.”

A report from the Dolphin Research Institute says, “Researchers must be careful when undertaking behavioural studies, as we should not try to assign human behaviour categories to the dolphins’ behaviour.”

The report goes on to say: “There have also been cases of wild, lone dolphins (generally males) seeking out swimmers and small boats, sometimes remaining in the same area for many years.

“Dolphins can be quite aggressive, particularly the males towards each other. Males have been known to fight so violently that they have killed each other. They will also attack other species of dolphins and porpoises. Males have been documented killing juveniles of their own species if another male has fathered them, a behaviour known as infanticide.

“This sort of behaviour has also been observed in other mammals from rodents to lions. There has recently been a lot of press about the “dark side of dolphins” which involves some of the behaviours identified above, but it is important to remember that they are wild animals.”

Spanish scientist Bruno Díaz suggested that in one respect at least, the dolphin appears to be rather more sophisticated than human beings. ‘The surprising thing about these sounds is that they have a high level of uni-directionality, unlike human sounds,’ the Spanish scientist commented. ‘One dolphin can send a sound to another that it sees as a competitor, and this one clearly knows it is being addressed.’