Wild dolphins perform as well as captive cousins

LONDON - Wild dolphins can perform as well as captive cousins.

These remarkable creatures are not doing it for human audience but themselves.

In an incredible discovery, a group of six wild bottlenose dolphins have taught themselves to ‘walk’ backwards on the water using their tails.

Marine biologists say the craze is spreading through the community of dolphins in Adelaide at an astonishing rate and that the only plausible explanation is that they are doing it for fun, reports the Daily Mail.

The discovery shows how dolphins are even brighter than is known.

Mike Bossley of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, Australia, has been observing the dolphins in Port River, Australia, for 24 years. He previously reported tail walking in two adult females - Billie and Wave.

Billie is thought to have picked up the skill during three weeks in captivity in 1988.

The female was looked after by a local dolphinarium after she became trapped behind a marine lock and was unable to return to the sea.

After three weeks in a tank she was released into the wild with a “3″ branded on her dorsal fin to make her easy to spot.

Billie returned to her usual haunts and - to the astonishment of experts - began to tail-walk herself.

Despite receiving no formal training, the researchers believe she learned the trick by watching other captive dolphins being fed for performing the trick.

Now - two decades after being released back into the wild - she is passing on the skill.

Over the last few years she has taught the trick to five other dolphins in her group.

Another dolphin performs tricks for fun. Scientists have discovered five of the animals tail-walking in the wild.