Dolphins have been filmed chasing and circling a great white shark in incredibly rare and baffling drone footage.
In the video posted to YouTube by xmierx, a lone great white shark can be seen swimming off Plettenberg Bay—a coastal town on South Africa's Garden Route in the Western Cape province.
Dolphins can be seen swimming towards the shark before circling it and at times getting incredibly close to it, though it does not appear agitated or irritated by their behavior.
Dolphins and sharks both live in the waters off the Western Cape but usually avoid each other. Most interactions recorded by scientists appear to be aggressive ones.
Stephanie Plön, marine biologist and professor at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, told Newsweek that, in the video, the dolphins appear "cautiously inquisitive."
"It may be a bunch of young animals. The footage shows that not all interactions have ill intent. Dolphins and sharks co-occur in many areas of our oceans, but to date, we have mainly seen the results of aggressive interactions in the evidence of shark bites on both live and dead dolphins," Plön said.
"New technology, like this drone footage, highlights the fact that there may also be other interactions that we may not be aware of yet."
Dr. Enrico Gennari, a local shark researcher from Oceans Research Institute in Mossel Bay, Western Cape, told Plön that the great white appeared to like interacting with the dolphins, meaning there was "curiosity on both sides."
The footage comes not long after a shark attack occurred at a Plettenberg Bay beach. On September 25, a 39-year-old woman was killed by a shark while taking an early-morning swim at the beach. It is not clear which species was responsible.
At the time of the incident, experts said it was extremely rare. According to the International Shark Attack File, South Africa has had only 37 such fatalities since 1997.
Not long afterwards, an aerial survey of the Plettenberg Bay coastline conducted by the Plett Shark Action Group (PSAG) showed 12 great white sharks around the same area, more than is usual for this time of year. These animals commonly swim in this area of South Africa during winter.
It is not the first time dolphins have been spotted acting strangely around great white sharks.
On September 25, on the New South Wales coast, Australia, dolphins appeared to push a surfer called Bill Ballard out of harm's way when a great white shark was lurking nearby.
According to The Courier, Ballard had encountered dolphins in the area before, so he was well versed in their usual behavior.
"It's hard to describe, but they kept coming up to the surface to look at me and also began swimming back and forward, coming closer and trying to push me towards the shore," Ballard told the Australian newspaper.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Robyn White is a Newsweek Nature Reporter based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on wildlife, science and the ... Read more
