"I firmly believe that dolphins saved my life." A British man was bitten five times by sharks while swimming in the Red Sea in Egypt. When he lost too much blood and wanted to give up his life, a group of dolphins suddenly swam up to him and stopped him. shark attack. He was later rescued by a boat and sent to the hospital where he received more than 300 stitches and survived the shark's mouth.

The story of dolphins saving humans is often talked about. However, biologists believe that the dolphins’ actions were not out of love for humans, but just out of the biological instinct to protect their young and wanted to expel them. Just a shark.

↑Data map

According to the documentary "Escape from the Shark's Mouth" released by the National Geographic Channel on July 2, a British man named Martin Richard was attacked by a shark. Dessen recalled that when he was swimming in the Red Sea in Egypt, he was attacked by a sharpnose mako shark without warning. The shark bit him five times, leaving five huge wounds on his body. The blood dyed the surrounding seawater red.

Just then, a pod of dolphins appeared behind Richardson, the shark stopped attacking, and the bloody shark attack came to an abrupt end. Thanks to the intervention of the dolphins, a ship not far away was able to take advantage of this gap and pull him on board. After Richardson was rushed to the hospital, he received more than 300 stitches all over his body to save his life.

↑The wound on Richardson’s back

Richardson still has lingering fears when he thinks of this experience. He said that he had given up on surviving at that time. "I knew the shark had no reason to stop, I had lost about 2.8 liters of blood and a human body only has 4.5 to 5 liters of blood. I knew the shark was circling me... I was waiting for the feeding frenzy... I I turned around and looked at the mountains in the distance, and gave up the idea of ​​​​survival."

Richardson was very grateful for the dolphins' "help". He said: "I firmly believe that the dolphins saved my life. life." However, biologicalExperts believe that the dolphins did not want to protect or care for humans.

Mike Haysos, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida International University, also said that it was unlikely that the dolphins came to Richardson to save his life. Although there are good stories of dolphins protecting humans, in most cases they do so to protect their own calves.

Haysos said that after Richardson was bitten, blood appeared in the sea, and the dolphins received the message that "there are sharks in this sea area." "If there were dolphin calves in this group of dolphins, they would suspect that the shark wanted to attack the baby dolphins and wanted to scare the shark away in advance," he judged. "They probably did not want to save Richardson."

Marine biologist and shark conservationist Tom Hurd said: "It is obviously a very romantic idea for humans to be saved by another animal."