Marine Parks Authority

Batemans Marine Park research scientist Dr Melinda Coleman said an ordinary morning on the water turned into something special last week when she and her colleagues came upon Bottlenose dolphins frolicking and mating.

“It was a rare opportunity to witness mating behaviour in the wild. The dolphins were completely oblivious of onlookers and frolicked together chasing, rubbing and splashing before finally coming together ‘belly to belly’ for a romantic interlude.

“We initially thought the pod of around 15 dolphins was feeding in the shallow waters, but when they swam closer we quickly realised there was more going on! It was quite amazing to see nature in action.”

Dr Coleman said it was possible baited underwater video cameras filming fish in the water at the time may have even caught some of the dolphin antics on tape.

“We did manage to take a number of digital images as well, and we’re quite excited as it is extremely unusual to see such an event, let alone document it on film.

“There was no mistaking what was going on,” Dr Coleman commented.

She said unlike many other animals, male and female dolphins do not choose a mate for life. Instead, males come together with all-female pods in the spring-summer reproductive period and both sexes may mate with multiple partners.

Dr Coleman said as the gestation period for dolphins was about 12 months we could expect to see some dolphin calves swimming around the beaches off the south coast sometime next summer.