Spotted on a Facebook post earlier today: this beautiful image of two Bottlenose Dolphins (either Tursiops aduncus or Tursiops truncatus – it’s complicated) in the waters off the South coast of the Western Cape. The ‘tog call it Yin and Yang, and yeah, fair enough, you can see why.
Close enough.
But the photo isn’t the reason I’m sharing this. It’s… it’s that weirdly specific comment by Viola Inches (r/toastnames, btw) that made me want to blog it.
What?
Bottle nose dolphins are very friendly however don’t be fooled because they can turn on you like Roman Emperor Son that turned on His own father.
What?!!?
I’m no expert on Roman history (my knowledge of this period is almost entirely garnered from to watching Monty Python’s Life of Brian in the mid-1980s), and so I don’t know the particular emperor father and son combo to which Viola is referring. I guess that sort of thing was probably amongst the many risks you took as part of the hierarchy back in those turbulent, classical times.
But whoever it might be (or even if it’s just completely made up – but then, why would you?), I’m going to be very, very careful next time I encounter a Bottlenose Dolphin.
How embarrassing would it be if one of them turned on me like Roman Emperor Son that turned on His own father, after I’d read this comment?
No. Safety first.