Dolphins form life raft to help dying friend

[2naSalit]

22. I agree with your speculation about the behavior

and that it may have been that these animals recognized a possible potential outcome of obtaining help. Remember that video from the other day where that dolphin in Hawai'i swam around those divers who were watching manta rays and hung around until they helped it by cutting fishing line away? I don't think that was a chance occurrence. That dolphin may have been tangled up for days before it found helpful humans and may have been attracted by the lights knowing that lights meant humans were around and that they might be able to help it.

I have observed many wildlife species in many places acting in ways that would indicate a knowledge of who and what they might be able to communicate. I once had a cat who was friends with all the red squirrels who lived in our trees. Whenever one was hit by a car or died for some not so obvious reason, she would lure me outside to the body... but she had a particular pose she used every time to indicate that one of her friends was dead and that I had to go and bury it. She'd sit next to me and hold up one paw, as though it was hurt, and then look sadly toward the door and shudder. After I had buried her friend she would come in and sit on me and shiver, even after she had fallen to sleep. And there are so many times that I have observed wild animals showing emotion and grief that I could probably write a book about it.

I suspect that these dolphins may well have been asking for help, they did push the troubled one right up to the boat...