The dark side of Flipper: He's sexual predator of the seas who resorts to rape to get his way

They look friendly and gentle enough. But dolphins also have a dark side, a study has revealed.

When they want to get their way, they resort to ‘rape’.

An international team of researchers spent six years studying the behaviour of 120 bluenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Western Australia.

They observed males asserting their authority by forcefully mounting other males. These were short-term shows of strength, used to dominate males from other groups.

The study also showed a complex ‘open society’ where dolphins exhibited periods of homosexuality and bisexuality.

So complicated are the bonds between dolphins that one of  the researchers has described them as ‘mentally and physically exhausting’ – and declared he  was glad he wasn’t a dolphin.        More