Greek octopus forms coalition with dolphin's genitals

Rowan Hooper, news editor

(Image: Joan Gonzalvo)

"I have never seen anything like this," says Joan Gonzalvo. Gonzalvo studies the dolphins of the Amvrakikos gulf in western Greece and runs the Ionian Dolphin Project for the Tethys Research Institute.

Last week, he was making observations with a group of volunteers when a bottlenose dolphin leapt in front of the boat with something attached to its belly. The something turned out to be an octopus, and it was actually attached to the dolphin's genital slit.

Comparisons with current attempts by Greek political parties to form a coalition would be in poor taste. "My hypothesis is that the dolphin might have attacked - tried to prey on the octopus - and somehow to avoid it the octopus just attached to the dolphin's belly," says Gonzalvo.

The dolphin made two leaps before it shook off the cephalopod. "Whales have been reported on numerous occasions to breach," says Gonzalvo, "as a strategy to remove parasites and barnacles."

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