Baby dolphin dies after several beachgoers in Spain pulled it out to take selfie

A baby dolphin has died after tourists posed for selfies with it on the beach. The female was seperated from its mother and was stranded in shallow water off a beach in Mojacar in southern Spain.

The small female dolphin was found in shallow waters near to a busy tourist beach in southern Spain.

Marine conservationists said that tourists gathered around the frightened mammal in order to stroke her and take pictures.

A local wildlife group, Equinac posted on Facebook page, posting photos of the tourists and the dolphin.

A nonprofit group from Almeria Equinac said the tourists were “obsessed” with taking selfies. The group wrote: “Humans are the most irrational animal there is. Many people are unable to feel empathy for a living being which is frightened, starving hungry, without its mother and terrified.

“In their selfishness, all they want is to photograph it and touch it, even if the animal is suffering from stress.”

Animal experts from Equinac were on the scene after 15 minutes, but the dolphin had died.

“The animal was submitted to the curiosity of those who wanted to photograph and touch it,” the group wrote.

“The photographs showed children touching the animal, unintentionally covering the spiracle. It’s not an animal for children or adults to caress.”

“Cetaceans are very susceptible to stress and crowding around it to take photos and to touch it causes them a big shock which greatly accelerates a cardiorespiratory failure, which is what happened.”

“We’re not saying that the bathers were responsible for it becoming stranded. It became stranded because it was sick or because it lost its mother, without whom it cannot survive.”

“But crowding around to photograph and touch it, of course, causes these animals to become extremely stressed.”