Saturday, January 22, 2011
Well, not so fast. It turned out that whenever they were approached, they’d use their flippers to scamper across the sand and back into the water. They’d swim about 100 feet offshore and stick their heads out of the water and make those laughing sounds we’ve all seen and heard on TV.
This went on for months. Local people began sneaking up on them, hiding behind a big rock on the shore. I think it was Laguna Beach, California, but I could be wrong about that.
What they saw when the dolphins didn’t realize a featherless biped was watching was pretty amazing. They were practicing walking around on their flippers, and they were getting very good at it. One guy claims he saw a male and a female walk all the way to Thalla Street and look in the show window of an art gallery before scurrying back to the beach. (That sounds fishy to me, but he swore it was true.)
