A solitary female common dolphin who lived around Eckerförder Bay, Germany for approximately a year has been found dead. Her body was found on the seabed by recreational divers on January 27, a post mortem is due to be conducted to determine the cause of death.
Reports state that the dolphin does not appear to have external injuries, however, further examination/investigation will hopefully help uncover the exact cause of death, but no matter what the cause, we are deeply saddened that yet another solitary dolphin has lost its life.
Solitary dolphins or whales should not be seen as an unusual occurrence within the cetacean realm, or indeed amongst social mammalian species as a whole, however, it would appear that these unique individuals are on the increase.
Marine Connection has been monitoring the phenomenon of solitary cetaceans for many years – more details on this work can be found here
