Dolphin news from France, May 2006
Marie Louis from Strasbourg once again spent her Easter holidays at Cap Sizun in Brittany this year (see News from Brittany May 2005), with friends from the Réseau Cétacés group. This time Dony had already set off on his customary seasonal journey southward, but Jean F'loch was still in residence and as interactive as ever.
Marie Louis writes: "We were very lucky, we met Jean Floc'h every day! He was very very playful and interactive, much more than last summer and during the winter I think. He often imitated us as we swam (especially when we also imitated him by swimming with the two fins together like a dolphin!), it was very funny. He was very active, he often jumped, leaped and did a lot of spy-hopping! He also had quiet moments, especially when children were in the water, but he was often dynamic!
We spent some marvellous moments with him, I was very pleased to see him again and in such good form! Each encounter is different, but always beautiful and with a lot of surprises! "
Marie sent us some excellent photos which you can see here (link). She says that when they were taking photos, Jean F'loch often stayed motionless in front of the camera, as if he understood what they were trying to do!
Meanwhile, Dony has been reported recently from a new location, Le Pouliguen, near St.Nazaire in the Pays de la Loire, where he spent 5 days up to the 8th May entertaining the crowds. Jean-Philippe Gallon has some photos on his web-site
(but please note this is unfortunately only accessible to users of the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser!)
Previously Dony had spent time off Cap Sizun in February (hanging out with Jean F'loch), visited a favourite haunt on L'Ile de Ouessant (Finistere) during March and then turned up suddenly in l'Ile de Ré (Charente-Maritimes) at the end of April.
Due to time pressure I'm afraid I have given up trying to keep a daily track of this fast-moving dolphin, but the team at Reseau Cetaces are still on the case if you want to check out their sightings page. But be warned, apart from being in French it's very tricky to navigate; enter the site here and then follow links for Les Dauphins Ambassadeurs and then Suivre Dony/ Randy; then you still have to change the dolphin in the drop-down menu from Jean F'loch to Dony Randy, before clicking on Voire les nouvelles du dauphin. Even if you try to bookmark this page you will have to repeat the whole performance on subsequent visits.
Compiled by Graham 24th May
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