Lethal aggression of bottlenose dolphins towards harbour porpoises has been reported in different parts of the world since the late 1990s.
In a study recently published in BMC Zoology, researchers have looked at events that took place in the German Baltic Sea over three months in Autumn 2016 with regards to a known solitary dolphin called Fiete* (Identifiable by various scars around his face) and the deaths of six harbour porpoises – the latter had all experienced haemorrhages and varying degrees of trauma inflicted to their bodies.
The solitary male is likely to have been responsible for the deaths as the necropsy findings fit with previously reported bottlenose dolphin attacks on porpoises – off the coast of Scotland for example. This is, however, the first report of porpoise aggression by a social solitary bottlenose dolphin.
*Fiete disappeared for two months after leaving the area of Kiel Fjord, before turning up in Saint-Malo, France in February 2017. His whereabouts are currently unknown.
