In August of 2021, a research team was documenting the flora and fauna near the Tijamuchi River in Bolivia when they saw some animals that are typically difficult to see.
The biologists at the Noel Kempff Mercado Museum of Natural History in Santa Cruz de la Sierra were amazed to see them with their heads above the river. They started taking pictures when they knew something was up.
The researchers realized the dolphins were holding an anaconda as they swam after scrolling through the images.
The journal Ecology had a description of what they saw last month. While dolphins in captivity and the wild are known for being playful, the surprising behavior of the Bolivian cetaceans seems like a new frontier in frolicking among the aquatic mammals, and some scientists still aren't sure what to think about what the team observed.
According to Dr. Reichle, the dolphins in the Bolivian river usually swim below the surface and only catch a fin or a tail. Some of the animals they saw kept their heads above the water for a long time.
At one point, two dolphins seemed to swim in sync, with a snake in their mouths. Anacondas can hold their breaths for a while. Because the snake was handled for at least seven minutes, it probably died.
I don't think the snake had a good time, according to Dr. Reichle.
The team suspects that they play not predation because of how long this interaction lasted. The natives of Bolivia are apex predators. The only documented case of serpents being eaten is a single one. The team didn't see where the snake ended up.
One of the paper's authors said that playing with dolphins seems to be a good answer.
Some of the dolphins gathered were juvenile, which could suggest that the adults were teaching the kids about hunting and anacondas.
A behavioral ecologist who was not part of the study was skeptical that the interaction was intentional. She says it is more plausible that the juvenile were observing because they were curious.
Dr. Wild wonders if the snake was dead before the dolphins got to it. She said that this seems a little extraordinary.
This is the first time I have heard of dolphins playing with a large snake.
The male dolphins had erect penises, something else from the photos.
Diana Reiss, a marine mammal scientist and cognitive psychologist at Hunter College in New York who was not involved with the study, said that it could have been sexually stimulating for them.
The aroused males could have been having sex with each other.
Researchers who study dolphins are well aware of the sexual proclivities of the animals, such as rubbing their genitals on toys or putting their penises into objects. They use their penises for touch. She has observed bottlenose dolphins trying to get into a pilot whale in an aquarium. She said that it was possible that the males tried to insert their penises into the snake.
There are so many questions.
A lot more is known about ocean-dwelling dolphins than riverine ones, in part because it's harder to see what's going on when the river water is muddy. Even though they are limited in nature, they are still valuable.
The stuff of children's storybooks is not what happened in this animal encounter.
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