{"id":29134,"date":"2023-06-16T14:27:08","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T12:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/?p=77831"},"modified":"2023-06-16T14:35:42","modified_gmt":"2023-06-16T12:35:42","slug":"why-dolphins-like-to-follow-boats-and-surf-the-bow-waves","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/why-dolphins-like-to-follow-boats-and-surf-the-bow-waves\/","title":{"rendered":"Why dolphins like to follow boats and surf the bow waves"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dolphins often follow boats and bow-ride as it’s not only fun, but also an efficient way to travel <\/p>

By BBC Wildlife Magazine\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 16 June 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

\u201cOur two most abundant dolphins, common and bottlenose<\/a><\/strong>, often bow-ride, but we see the latter species doing it more frequently since it spends more time inshore,\u201d says Peter Evans, founder of the Sea Watch Foundation<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Why do dolphins ride bows?<\/h2>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an energy-efficient way to travel because the flow of water assists the animals, yet it\u2019s mainly a form of play.\u201d<\/p>\n
As with children, however, the game can get competitive. \u201cDolphins jostle to ride the wave,\u201d Peter explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdult males may push others away quite aggressively. Several females might stay on a bow wave happily enough, but if a couple of males turn up they will barge in and take over.\u201d<\/p>\n\nIt is usually possible to tell that these more boisterous dolphins are adult males from their battle-worn bodies: \u201cThe scars, nicks in their fins and tooth-rake marks bear witness to past fights with rivals.\u201d<\/p>\nYou may even get to see groups of bottlenose dolphins bow-riding together. \u201cI recently watched about 30 near Anglesey,\u201d says Peter.<\/p>\n\u201cWe were in a catamaran, which is perfect since its wide, square bow enables half-a-dozen dolphins to be at the front at once.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\""highlight\"> <div class=\""highlight__content\" editor-content=\"\"> \n<ul>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/marine-animals\/swim-with-dolphins\/"\">Is it ever ok to swim with dolphins?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/marine-animals\/how-do-dolphins-sleep\/"\">How do dolphins sleep?<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/mammals\/how-to-help-a-beached-whale-or-dolphin\/"\">How to help a beached whale or dolphin<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.discoverwildlife.com\/animal-facts\/why-whales-and-dolphins-dont-suffer-from-the-bends\/"\">Why whales and dolphins don\u2019t suffer from the bends<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> \u00a0<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dolphins often follow boats and bow-ride as it’s not only fun, but also an efficient way to travel <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":29135,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/why-dolphins-like-to-follow-boats-and-surf-the-bow-waves-scaled.jpg",2560,1715,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/why-dolphins-like-to-follow-boats-and-surf-the-bow-waves-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/why-dolphins-like-to-follow-boats-and-surf-the-bow-waves-300x201.jpg",300,201,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/why-dolphins-like-to-follow-boats-and-surf-the-bow-waves-768x515.jpg",768,515,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/why-dolphins-like-to-follow-boats-and-surf-the-bow-waves-1024x686.jpg",800,536,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/why-dolphins-like-to-follow-boats-and-surf-the-bow-waves-1536x1029.jpg",1536,1029,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2023\/06\/why-dolphins-like-to-follow-boats-and-surf-the-bow-waves-2048x1372.jpg",2048,1372,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Dolphins often follow boats and bow-ride as it's not only fun, but also an efficient way to travel","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/29134"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}