A rare tiny ‘panda dolphin’ has greeted stunned tourists in a boat.
The clip shows the cute little dolphin, one of the smallest species in the world, grunting in the water as it apparently takes an interest in the vessel.
It rolls over in the water and starts to swim to the port side to apparently greet the tourists hanging over the edge to catch a glimpse.
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The Commerson’s dolphin (Cephalorhynchus commersonii) – also known as a panda or skunk dolphin – resembles a baby orca due to its distinctive black and white colouring.
It is only found around the tip of South America.
A subspecies, C.c.kerguelenensis, which is slightly larger than C.c.commersonii, is found around the Kerguelen Islands in the Indian Ocean.
The video was filmed by Argentine documentary maker Luis Burgueño, 60, who lives in Trelew in north-eastern Patagonia.
Burgueño, who is also a wildlife photographer, said the little animal was with a pod of other panda dolphins at the time.
He told What’s The Jam: “Commerson’s dolphins are endemic to the southern tip of Patagonia.
“This one was with other specimens around the boat and the encounter lasted longer than you see in the video.
“It stayed with us for a good while longer.
“But I never noticed it turning around to point its abdominal area upwards, which is a gesture of total confidence as it’s their most vulnerable area.”
Burgueño’s video went viral on his Instagram page with a whopping 21.2M views and nearly 6,000 comments.
One local said: “Omg, I thought it was a mooring buoy!”
Another wrote: “cute.”
Alexa commented: “Awwwww, I want one.”
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