Tales from the Lagoon ~ Episode - The Dolphin Uncle Larry is Back!
It's overcast with spitting rain today so thought I'd share the lagoon shenanigans from yesterday.....
Tales from the Lagoon ~ Episode - The Dolphin Uncle Larry is Back!
If you are just tuning in I met the dolphin called Uncle Larry in 2018. At that time, he spent his days with a maternity pod including Momma and her calf Indy.
Momma was the first mom dolphin I met, not thinking I would met others I named her Momma. Indy was named after the Indian river. Uncle Larry was the male dolphin escorting the moms and their calves.
The photos with the baby dolphin is Indy, being sandwiched between Uncle Larry and Momma.
At that time, I spent quite a bit of time with Momma and Indy but not much with Uncle Larry. It wasn’t until 2022 that he started engaging and showed his very playful side. My guess is he took his parental role very serious back in 2018.
It appears he retired from being the male protector for the maternity pod because now he hangs out with another male dolphin named Jagger. I do still see him with the kiddos and Momma but he doesn’t seem to have the same role.
Uncle Larry has the number 963 on his dorsal fin. I learned he was part of a health assessment in 2004. What that means is a research team checked 3 dolphins for health issues, the good news is they found all 3 to be healthy males.
They estimated his age at that time to be around 25, he was the oldest of the 3 dolphins in the assessment. That makes him approximately 44 years old now! Makes me wonder if he is related to Jagger, maybe Jagger is his son or grandson.
The original researcher has since passed away but when he heard the news the 3 males were doing well, he was very happy to hear the unexpected update.
Uncle Larry loves to engage the camera, paddle boarders and even tease the pelicans. He spent time teasing Pip the pelican last year. Pip didn’t like that so much but Uncle Larry thought it was a hoot giving him a little bump when he swam under Pip.
When I first got in the water in 2018, I never thought in a million years I would get to know the wildlife in such a personal way. I'm grateful for the glimpse into their world.
Stay tuned for more tales!
Teh indentation on his side is from the health assessment.