A stranded dolphin was just given a second chance at life, thanks to a helpful tour guide in Walvis Bay, Namibia.
Naude Dreyer, a guide with Pelican Point Kayaking, spotted something strange moving in the sand while driving along the beach after a Wednesday morning tour.
Dreyer and his client pulled over at Paaltjies Beach for a closer look and realized it was a young dolphin stranded on the shore.
"He was moving a bit and I immediately knew he was alive," Dreyer told The Sydney Morning Herald.
In the video below, Dreyer quickly gets to work, hoisting the dolphin into his arms and back into the ocean. At first, the dolphin was still as Dreyer walked it out into the surf. Then, it wiggled its tail and took off into the water.
"I was not very hopeful," Dreyer wrote in a Facebook post, "but as soon as he got into water and realized where he was, he took off like a bullet."
While the rescued animal resembles a mini orca, it actually appears to be a juvenile Benguela dolphin, also known as Heaviside's dolphin, a species which can be found off the coast of Namibia Africa and South Africa.
Dreyer isn't sure how the dolphin ended up on the beach, but he knew he had to help it in any way he could.
"I was just doing what was the right thing to do," he told the newspaper. "I couldn't leave him there."
And he made the right call, according to marine biologists.
Kim Holland, a researcher at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, said that, while it depends on what condition a beached marine animal is in, putting it back in the water is the best thing to do.
"Certainly, even though the chances may be slim, they have a better chance of survival if they are put back in the ocean than if they are left stranded," Holland told The Huffington Post.
However, the Marine Mammal Center advises anyone who comes across a beached dolphin to report it right away so that officials can properly return the animal to safety.
Lucky for this little dolphin, Dreyer was there to save the day.
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