Dolphin News

Instead of the regular dolphin news, we provide a sad update from the Barnacles Facebook page:

It brings us great sadness to report that in the last few days, Ella has come into the cove without her three week old calf Shadow.

Dolphin calves are highly dependent and inseparable from their mothers for the first few years of their life. At only three weeks of age, the only reason the calf would be apart from his mother at this stage, is if he is deceased.

Ella is an amazing mother having successfully raised four calves previously but sadly, this is not uncommon in wild dolphins, with approximately 50% of calves not surviving the first year of their life due to predation, illness or human impacts.

This news is very upsetting for us all here at Barnacles Cafe & Dolphin Feeding. We have all hoped that over the past few days he would come in, but unfortunately is highly unlikely and we have to face the fact that our little bag of beans is gone.

The rest of the pod continue to come in daily and they still put a smile on our faces in this sad time. They must be sensing our devastation because they’ve been putting on quite a show to help us smile, lots of tail slapping and jumping, little Luna throwing leaves around and showing off. Such amazing creatures they are.

Rest In Peace Shadow, 09/03/21 – 31/03/21.