{"id":231446,"date":"2025-07-02T07:44:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-02T07:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/231446\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T07:44:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T07:44:14","slug":"its-jack-the-flipper-killer-dolphin-on-the-loose-in-british-waters-murders-shark-and-baby-dolphin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/231446\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Jack the Flipper! Killer dolphin on the loose in British waters murders shark and baby dolphin"},"content":{"rendered":"

By OLIVIA CHRISTIE<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 02:50 EDT, 2 July 2025 | Updated: 03:00 EDT, 2 July 2025 <\/p>\n

A killer dolphin is on the loose in British waters after it slayed one of its own kind – and then a shark.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The bottlenose dolphin, which has been nicknamed Jack the Flipper, was caught on camera attacking a\u00a0smooth-hound shark last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, three months ago it was also seen killing a baby common dolphin by repeatedly tossing it out of the water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The killer dolphin is part of a pod that lives off New Quay, Cardigan Bay, near Aberystwyth, mid Wales.<\/p>\n

It was initially named\u00a0Anakin – after the young Jedi knight in the Star Wars franchise -by dolphin watcher Sarah Michelle Wyer.<\/p>\n

‘I have not seen a dolphin throw a shark out in the eight years I have been watching them,’ she told What’s The Jam.<\/p>\n

‘One of the skippers I work with has seen them throw tope out of the water, which is another small member of the shark family.<\/p>\n

‘But when Anakin killed the young common dolphin, it was the first recorded instance of this behaviour happening in Cardigan Bay.<\/p>\n

\"Pictured: <\/p>\n

Pictured: Anakin is seen throwing a dolphin into the air off the coast of Cardigan Bay, Wales<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The bottlenose dolphin, which has been nicknamed Jack the Flipper, was caught on camera attacking a smooth-hound shark last week<\/p>\n

\"Killer <\/p>\n

Killer dolphin Anakin is seen swimming off the coast of Wales\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘It is unknown why this dolphin chose to do it – as it would have been of no threat.<\/p>\n

‘Bottlenose dolphins are highly intelligent creatures and are capable of many unusual behaviours – many not so pleasant.<\/p>\n

‘They are not ‘friendly flipper’ like many assume. This particular dolphin seems to have a very unusual personality.<\/p>\n

‘Dolphins are known to kill porpoises in a behaviour known as porpicide. But despite the name common dolphin, they aren’t common around here.<\/p>\n

‘And we now think this could be because of the bottlenose dolphins.’<\/p>\n

Experts have been left baffled by the killer dolphin’s behaviour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Dolphin Spotting Boat trips, who Sarah works with, added: ‘We were very surprised when one of our local dolphins, Anakin brought what we originally thought was a large salmon past the boat in its mouth and then threw the fish out the water.<\/p>\n

‘To our surprise it was not a salmon at all but a member of the shark family called a smooth hound.<\/p>\n

\"Pictured: <\/p>\n

Pictured: Sarah, a spokesperson for Dolphin Spotting Boat trips. Experts have been left baffled by Anakin’s behaviour\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Three <\/p>\n

Three months ago Anakin was also seen killing a baby common dolphin by repeatedly tossing it out of the water<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The dolphin was initially named Anakin – after the young Jedi knight in the Star Wars franchise – by Sarah Michelle Wyer<\/p>\n

‘We aren’t sure if there are many records of smooth hounds being part of a bottlenose dolphin’s diet. Smooth hounds grow up to 4ft long.<\/p>\n

‘Bottlenose dolphins are opportunistic feeders and have a very wide ranging diet of a variety of species of fish, squid and crustaceans.<\/p>\n

‘We aren’t 100 per cent sure whether Anakin ate the shark or whether him and his friends were simply playing with it as they do.<\/p>\n

‘Earlier this year, Anakin was also involved in a not-so-common incident where he played the main role in the demise of the young common dolphin.<\/p>\n

‘Anakin’s dolphinality is a very unusual one to say the least.’<\/p>\n

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\n It’s Jack the Flipper! Killer dolphin on the loose in British waters murders shark and baby dolphin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By OLIVIA CHRISTIE Published: 02:50 EDT, 2 July 2025 | Updated: 03:00 EDT, 2 July 2025 A killer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3847],"tags":[92,12,70,16,15,1717],"class_list":{"0":"post-231446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114782527613356913","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}