Two striped Dolphins were spotted cruising in the waters of Venice’s historical centre last month, perhaps making the most out of the city without tourists.
If you were a dolphin right now, where would you go?
We think a cheeky day trip to Venice would be a pretty good shout – without the crowds and cruise ships.
Last month, that’s exactly what two Striped Dolphins were spotted doing; swimming and sightseeing around the Giudecca and Grand canals.
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The dolphins were first spotted by Marco Busetto, the co-owner of a drainage company, who alerted the authorities of the sighting.
Luca Folin, who works for Busetto, took to social media to share the video footage of the two cruising dolphins.
Luca told CNN that the encounter was a “beautiful and rare moment… at a sad time.” He said, “having the video go viral is nice because it means I’ve made others smile.”
According to a CNN report, Police contacted the Cetacean strandings Emergency Response Team (CERT), which managed to help navigate the lost dolphins safely back to the Adriatic.
According to CERT, Striped Dolphins are rarely sighted in the northern Adriatic. They usually swim in pods of up to 100, not pairs, and stay away from the coastline, meaning the pair most likely got lost while looking for food.
“They could have been following prey in the mid Adriatic, pushed north and suddenly found themselves in Venice,” Guido Pietroluongo from CERT told CNN.
According to CERT, it’s more common to see bottlenose dolphins in the canal.
As much as we love to see wild animals venturing closer to humans, we must remember what’s best for them.
We hope that the two stray dolphins are now reunited with their pod, after their crazy adventure to the city!
CERT has said that citizens and authorities will continue to moniter the area for any other sightings.