Our well documented obsession with selfies has led to the death of an endangered dolphin in Argentina.
Footage emerged last week of tourists handling the La Plata dolphin calf after removing it from the ocean to take photos near the resort town of Santa Teresita. The images, shared widely on social media, show the small dolphin being passed amongst the large group while others take photographs. The dolphin is totally unprotected from the hot sun, and is believed to have died as a result.
La Plata dolphins, also called Franciscana dolphins, are only found in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, with just 30,000 of them thought to remain in the wild, La Plata dolphins are the only type of river dolphin that lives in saltwater. It is categorised as "vulnerable" on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species.
Dolphins cannot live outside of water for too long, as despite being mammals and breathing air, their body temperature is unable to be maintained outside water. This is especially true of La Plata dolphins, who have very thick and greasy skin that provides them warmth.
The risks of selfie taking is nothing new, and our shutter obsession has led to a number of deaths – leading UK newspaper the Telegraph to conclude that more people had died from selfie taking than were eaten by sharks last year.
Recently, in February, a 16-year-old boy was killed by a passenger train while taking a selfie with an approaching train in Chennai, India. "The teen reportedly walked in front of the train and waited for it to come closer before taking the photo.”