# Dolphins Protect Swimmers

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolphins-protect-swimmers/687198>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 28, 2014, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolphins-protect-swimmers/687198 "2014-04-28T17:07:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 3

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**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dolphins-protect-swimmers/687198/3 "2014-04-28T17:57:03Z")

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I trained bottle-nosed dolphins for many years in captivity and never saw them lift a flipper to help a human being… but I wouldn’t really expect them to. They’re in captivity.

I have seen dolphins be quite aggressive towards humans in the water, especially a belligerent male looking for a mate.

Do wild dolphins actively try to help swimmers in trouble? I’ve heard those stories too, but I’ve never spoken to anyone who has witnessed it.

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