A Dog Saves A Baby Dolphin That Was Stranded On A Beach

Images of how a dog saves a baby dolphin from certain death have flooded the internet and other media in recent days.

The cetacean, which had been stranded on a beach, was found by Leia, a two-year-old Cocker Spaniel.

The dog, honoring the powerful nose of her breed, perceived the presence of the animal in distress almost a kilometer away and alerted its owner who immediately returned the dolphin to the sea.

Details of how a dog saves a baby dolphin thanks to its great sense of smell

The incident occurred in Criccieth, a coastal area of ​​Wales -in the United Kingdom-, when Leia was walking along the beach with her owner, Rich Wilcock, who was taking pictures of the place. Suddenly, the dog started barking for no apparent reason.

At Leia’s insistence, Wilcock realized he had detected something and decided to follow her. And that’s how, a thousand meters later, they found the little dolphin.

Luckily, the man managed to lead the cetacean into deeper waters and avoid the certain death that would have meant it remained stranded on the shore.

In addition, he took the precaution of staying a reasonable time in the area to ensure that the animal did not return to the beach, since there was no one else in the place and he did not have a signal on his cell phone to ask for help.

However, Wilcock later notified the coast guard.

Images on Youtube

However, he also had the opportunity to record images of the event with his camera and later uploaded them to the YouTube site. The video was also reproduced by different pages and blogs on the internet.

Thus, Leia became famous for having found the dolphin and saving his life thanks to her great sense of smell and her alert barks.

In the video , the small cetacean is also observed being able to enter the sea again and swimming towards deeper waters.

The smell of the Cocker Spaniel

Although all dogs are characterized by having a highly developed sense of smell, the Cocker Spaniel breed seem to take the cake on this issue. They are able to recognize almost imperceptible odors or even some that were covered with other odors.

For this reason, they are successfully used to find:

• Drugs
• Explosives
• People lost in natural disasters
• Gas leaks

In addition, they perform well as hunting dogs in swamps and forests, as they can track long distances.

So, when the information was known that a dog saves a baby dolphin by finding it stranded on a beach, it was surely no surprise to learn that it was a Cocker Spaniel .

Reasons for cetacean stranding

Like this little dolphin who was lucky enough to be found by the dog Leia, thousands of cetaceans are stranded on different beaches every year. Dolphins, whales, sperm whales and porpoises are found on the shores of the world already dead or at serious risk of dying.

But, thanks to the praiseworthy performance of many volunteers – organized or improvised – a large number of these animals can be successfully returned to the sea.

Among the reasons why cetaceans get stranded on the shores or in shallow waters, the following stand out:

• Old age or illness.

• Noise pollution from excessive maritime traffic, sonar tests or oil exploration with sonic cannons.
• Wounds produced by predators, boats or by being entangled in fishing nets.
• Disturbances in the marine currents.
• Herd herds to the coast for hunting.
• Geomagnetic anomalies.
• Pollution by marine litter, such as plastic bags.

Become aware

So that the life of many cetaceans does not depend on the luck of crossing with dogs like Leia, or on the attentive attitude of some people, a change of consciousness is imposed to, at least, free them from the causes of stranding caused by human action. .

In the meantime, that the information about what was done by Leia and her owner continues to spread, –beyond the specific anecdote– is a good way to delve into the subject and know how to act if we find these animals stranded on a beach.