A man took his dog to the beach at Rockingham Beach in Perth, Western Australia, where he made friends with a bottleneck dolphin in the shallows. Bottlenecks often cruise the shallows looking for food and they are curious animal and when they see something unusual, they want to explore it. The two hit it off and took turns chasing each other in the shallows.
Video of the duo splashing about and chasing each other in the water was captured by the dog’s owner on Sunday morning and after being shared online by Nine News, it went viral in no time.
One instance captures the Golden Retriever barking as his dolphin friend goes deeper into the water, seemingly keen for his friend to come back.
The dog’s owner Brett said it wasn’t the first time the pooch had enjoyed playing with dolphins in the shallows at the beach.
In the footage, the owner can be heard calling ‘where is he?’ to his dog, leading the pet to bark again at the mammal.
According to Professor Lars Bejder from the Murdoch University Cetacean Research Unit, the rare sighting of the dolphin in the shallows suggests it was hunting for fish.
‘In most coastal areas, including Rockingham, we often see these bottlenose dolphins in shallow areas,’ Prof. Bejder said.
The owner of the dog said this is not the first time his golden retriever has swam with the dolphins. Over a million people viewed this video in the first 24 hours.