In some sad news, a female dolphin called Sharky (I kid you not) has died whilst performing a stunt at an aquatic theme park in Florida. The 30-year-old bottlenose collided with another dolphin as they both jumped through the air at the same time in a ‘trick’ for spectators. Unfortunately they hit each other and Sharky died of head injuries.

A spokesman at the park has said, “This is an unfortunate, random incident”, but animals in captivity, forced to perform tricks day-in, day-out do not die accidentally. These dolphins belong in the big, blue ocean where they know best how to play their own games, rather than having some demeaning routine etched into their memories by profit-seeking ‘conservationists’. The park in question is allegedly now reviewing their training techniques but is that really good enough? No, it’s not. Take the dolphins out of the park for good and then we’ll give you some credit.

Just in case we needed any more proof that animals are amazing, intelligent and caring individuals, they’ve hit the news this week with tales of heroic deeds and groundbreaking communication skills. Moko, a friendly bottlenose dolphin known in the Mahia beach area in New Zealand, swam to the rescue of two stranded whales, that us humans had not managed to refloat despite several attempts. There was talk about having the poor whales euthanized to prevent them from suffering any longer, but Flipper-esque Moko escorted them out to safety. That is so cute, and so worthy of our respect.

In other news, researchers have discovered that monkeys have a far greater language system than previously imagined, combining different calls to make them meaningful just like humans do. See, we told you animals are awesome.