Moko the dolphin entertains, intimidates, New Zealand swimmers

Nov 27, 2009, 20:52 GMT

Wellington - A bottlenose dolphin named Moko by locals, who has been entertaining swimmers and surfers on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island for a year, is becoming dangerously playful, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

He not only delivers them fish but takes away their surfboards, the Dominion Post reported.

Moko, who has been off Gisborne's Wainui Beach for the last week, tossed a group of surfers a kingfish they estimated at 30 kilograms, local Karl Geiseler, 47, told the paper.

'He was presenting it to people,' he said. 'They'd grab it but then he'd hold on to it and flick it away. The fish was still alive. Then we tied a leg rope to the tail of the kingfish but the fish started taking a young fellow on his board out to sea.

'We gave the fish back to Moko and he played with it all day. It was pretty dead by the end.'

Jamie Quirk, a ranger with the Department of Conservation, said that he knew of at least three other incidents were Moko presented people with fish, including bringing one to the crew of a commercial fishing boat that had thrown him a piece of squid.

But the Gisborne Herald reported this week that Moko had sparked a full-scale rescue alert after stealing a 16-year-old's surfboard about 500 metres offshore at the beach.

Two days later, he stole another board and another surfer became tangled in his leg rope when Moko tried to take his board.

Rochelle Constantine, a behavioural ecologist at Auckland University, told the Dominion Post, 'It's very predictable behaviour for a solitary sociable bottlenose dolphin.

'He's treating people as he would other dolphins. Food-sharing is part of dolphin behaviour and so is playing with food.'

She said that Moko was not adult or sexually active and as he grew bigger, his behaviour would become more aggressive.

'He could become very, very, dangerous to humans,' Constantine said. 'He could drag them out to sea, or pin them on the seabed.

'History shows solitary sociable dolphins have caused serious injuries to people and one killed someone.'

With New Zealand's summer holidays starting at Christmas, the Conservation Department is considering sending mass text messages to warn 20,000 young visitors expected to travel to Gisborne for a music festival warning against swimming with Moko.