An endangered dolphin calf died in Argentina last week after being pulled out of the sea and used for selfies, then left on the mud, CBC News reported.
The news has prompted worldwide outrage after it trended on social media, with the tourists being called thoughtless among other things.
In the Youtube video footage of the incident last week, the dolphin is seen as being picked up by a man and then surrounded by a large curious crowd of people trying to touch the animal and pass it around for selfies.
The tiny dolphin, which is not more than a few feet long, is finally left to die in the mud. In the video, it can be seen lying motionless. According to the footage, it does not look like anyone in the crowd tried to intervene or to return the dolphin back to the water.
The dolphin died at the beach resort town Santa Teresita. Animal lovers and activists, of which the Argentine Wildlife Foundation (AWF) is also one, had condemned the action by insensitive tourists and beachgoers. The AWF released a statement asking people to return dolphins they might find back to the ocean waters.
The foundation claimed that the La Plata dolphins, also called Franciscana dolphins, are only found in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. It also said that less than 30,000 of them remain in the wild, Franciscana dolphins are the only type of river dolphin that lives in saltwater. It is categorized "vulnerable" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.
The IUNC says that the large part of threats to dolphins are gill nets. Gill nets have been known to drown, injure or attach to marine mammals in the past, causing extreme fatigue to them, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Dolphins cannot live outside of water for too long, because despite being mammals and breathing air, their body temperature gets too high outside water. This is especially true of Franciscana dolphins, who have very thick and greasy skin that provides them warmth.
