During the 1960s, NASA funded an experiment that allowed animal researcher Margaret Howe Lovatt to teach dolphins how to speak English, but Lovatt ended up teaching one particular dolphin, Peter, far more than just the art of making words. And she’s opening up about it for the first time.
An adolescent dolphin Lovatt described as “sexually coming of age,” Peter bonded with Lovatt and would often rub himself on different parts of her body, pushing like “an obsessed suitor.”
Soon, however, the relationship between Peter and Lovatt turned physical. When they got separated, Peter committed suicide.
"Dolphins are not automatic air-breathers like we are. Every breath is a conscious effort. If life becomes too unbearable, the dolphins just take a breath and they sink to the bottom. They don’t take the next breath."