Animals never fail to amaze us. But one man experienced something utterly incredible while out in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Clearwater, Florida. The clip was filmed on Tuesday and shows the moment that a dolphin leaps from the water to give the guy a high five. The clip was filmed about 45 miles off the coast of Clearwater. The guy and his friends were out fishing for grouper when they happened across the pod of dolphins. Because they were mesmerized by the water mammals, they decided to get as close as possible and interact with the wild creatures.
As you can see, the dolphins start swimming along with the boat as it cruises along the waters in the Gulf.
The guy behind the camera then reaches his hand out toward the water. That’s when a dolphin jumps out of the water and gives the man a high-five with its dorsal fin. Without a doubt, this was an intentional move on the part of the highly intelligent animal.
The man behind the camera was overwhelmed with the moment of connection. As soon as he could, he uploaded the video to YouTube where it was snatched up by the licensing company Viral Hog. In the clip, he wrote:
“Myself and six friends were offshore fishing 45 miles out of Clearwater, Florida for gag grouper. Ran into this pod of dolphins that were enjoying their time around the boat. Went to get a closer video off the bow of the boat. I reached my hand down the dolphin acknowledged me by giving me a high five!”
Dolphins are known for their playful behavior.
According to NPR.org, dolphins are extremely playful but may not be as intelligent as the general public believes.
“A researcher called Paul Manger came along and said, ‘OK, well all these great things that they can do — if you compare them to other mammals, they start looking less special,’ and saying that we really just love them too much,” Caroline Williams tells NPR’s Arun Rath about a piece published in New Scientist.
Williams admits that dolphins understand symbols like humans can, but so can other mammals.
“Paul Manger comes back and says, ‘Well, so can sea lions,’ and actually the sea lions learn it quicker,” Williams said. “But we’re not looking at sea lions and going, ‘Wow, they’re so intelligent, we should go and commune with them.’ “
While dolphins certainly are intelligent creatures, other mammals are too. It just so happens that dolphins have captured the attention of the public. Perhaps it is because they are so playful and adorable.
The fixation with dolphins is traced back to Dr. John C. Lilly who would called them “peaceful, loving geniuses.” He dedicated years trying to communicate with them.
“As a result of (Lilly’s) early work, dolphins did start to get more attention [and] more researchers started looking into their intelligence,” Williams said.
The author of “Are Dolphins Smart?” wonders that if sea lions had gotten as much attention back during Lilly’s career if they would have been considered the smart sea creatures.
“So that’s been good and bad really, because it means we do understand dolphins quite well because there’s been a lot of research on them,” Williams said. “But maybe that has elevated them above other species — it may be fairly, but it may turn out that they are on par with other species as well.”
