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[ti:Porpoises]
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[00:00.88]Lesson 18
[00:02.80]Porpoises
[00:09.00]What would you say is the main characteristic of porpoises?
[00:15.63]There has long been a superstition among mariners that porpoises will save drowning men by pushing them to the surface,
[00:23.59]or protect them from sharks by surrounding them in defensive formation.
[00:29.17]Marine Studio biologists have pointed out that, however intelligent they may be,
[00:34.75]it is probably a mistake to credit dolphins with any motive of life-saving.
[00:40.59]On the occasions when they have pushed to shore an unconscious human being they have much more likely done it out of curiosity or for sport,
[00:49.66]as in riding the bow waves of a ship.
[00:53.49]In 1928 some porpoises were photographed working like beavers to push ashore a waterlogged mattress.
[01:01.70]If, as has been reported, they have protected humans from sharks,
[01:06.35]it may have been because curiosity attracted them and because the scent of a possible meal attracted the sharks.
[01:14.03]Porpoises and sharks are natural enemies.
[01:17.32]It is possible that upon such an occasion a battle ensued, with the sharks being driven away or killed.
[01:24.97]Whether it be bird, fish or beast, the porpoise is intrigued with anything that is alive.
[01:31.85]They are constantly after the turtles, who peacefully submit to all sorts of indignities.