Dolphins and Bubbles

I have just finished viewing something that I had never seen before. Just recently, the trainers at Sea World Orlando's Dolphin Cove, discovered a new behavior from the dolphins: they were blowing bubbles under water, the dolphins, not the trainers!

Now, I must say in all honesty that pondering this interesting behavior has not exactly kept me up at night. I mean, I never gave any thought to what dolphins did to amuse themselves. I always assumed that they just swam around, ate little fish and squid, and had more dolphins. So, it kind of caught me by surprise when I saw the Dolphin Bubbles video. While the dolphins are under water, they will blow some air through their blowhole, which produces a stream of water. They then use their heads and spin the bubble into a circle.

I have to admit that I found it fun to watch them play with the bubbles they made. The dolphins would swim around and pass the bubbles to one another and sometimes they would make the bubbles large enough that they could swim through them. I remember when we used to have a dog and I would blow bubbles for her and watch her play with them. She would chase them and try to catch the bubbles in her mouth. It was interesting to see that the dolphins were doing the exact same thing. The trainers at Sea World state that this is a behavior the dolphins teach to each other.

I realize that everyone is busy these days, but if you want something fun and interesting to watch, take a few minutes and watch this video, which was seen on ABC's World News. I just wonder if I will ever hear a news report stating that the dolphins at Sea World have been heard to say, "So long and thanks for all the fish."