A dolphin fad with no known useSourced
One dolphin learned to tail-walk.
Wild neighbours copied her.
Billie saw captive dolphins tail-walking while recovering from a rescue near Australia's Port River. Back in the wild, she did it too; another dolphin, Wave, copied her. Up to 12 dolphins were seen tail-walking in 2011. No adaptive advantage is known.
Sometimes a trick spreads
just because others copy it.
Summary / translation: Unbubly · CC BY-SA 4.0
Source and reuse details
Dolphin · Wikimedia contributors
Adapted, summarized and translated from the source. Adapted text is also available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Reviewed: 2026-10-01