Since we last commented on Dony’s progress round the coast of Brittany, we have been reporting the latest sightings of him on an almost day by day basis on our Location/Sightings page . After arriving in the Concarneau / îles Glénans area in southern Brittany at the beginning of June, Dony has been busy following boats between the islands of that group and the mainland as well as visiting the next island along the coast at Groix, with its corresponding ports at Lorient and Locmiquelic. Really the pattern is the same as it has ever been; he swims with people in the harbours and follows boats to go from one point to the next. His interactive behaviour also seems remarkably constant. He approaches people fearlessly, demanding as much as inviting contact, he is often boisterous and sexual in his play and he frequently confounds peoples’ ideas of how a dolphin “should” behave.
Recently some people have described an increasing tendency to what they interpret as aggressive behaviour, and of course the local papers in France, not being any more interested in presenting a truthful and complete picture of events than those in Ireland, have seized on such reports with alacrity. This too is “part of the pattern” wherever Dony goes! However when one investigates carefully, as we have tried to do, it is hard to pin any serious charges on the dolphin beyond occasional poking and nibbling. The undeniable fact that some people (all young girls, so far) have got scared and felt threatened by the dolphin does not mean that the dolphin in fact attacked them! As we keep saying, if a dolphin means to attack you, you will not be in a state to go bleating to the newspapers about it afterwards, you will be in hospital if you survive the first charge! We should take care before we interpret what may be simply a playful gesture or a slight irritation caused by too many people crowding him as ‘aggression’. Dolphins are large and powerful animals and their interactions are often vigorously physical. Meanwhile other swimmers and observers – some witnessing the same scenes which have provoked charges of aggression – have continued to talk about Dony as a gentle and loving creature. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and so is fear and mistrust! The dolphins often seem to act as mirrors to our own human expectations and sometimes we can learn more about people than about dolphins as we watch them swim together and listen to what the people say about it afterwards!
So when you hear about dolphins such as Dony ‘turning nasty’, check the story out carefully and see where the writer is coming from before you make up your mind!
At the beginning of July, Dony was back at Beg-Meil on the the southern Finistère coast where he started last month. In the spring we hoped he might be heading back to Ireland – now it looks like he is happy in the warmer waters of Brittany. But as he keeps reminding us, this amazing dolphin is wild and free and there’s no telling where he’ll be next week.
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