Congratulations! But also, now we’re a little sad…
Fungie is maybe the most famous dolphin in the world, after Flipper, but he was fictional (sort of), so we’re not counting him.
As if being a local legend wasn’t reason enough for worldwide fame, Fungie has now been added to the Guinness Book of World Records for what might be the most low-key depressing reason in existence.
As of 2019, Fungie has now been recorded to be the longest-living solitary dolphin in the world, having first been spotted in 1983, marking 36 years of Dingle-based lonesomeness.
Apparently Fungie has narrowly beat out another dolphin called JoJo, who lives in the waters off Providenciales in the Turks & Caicos islands in the Caribbean. For the longest time, it wasn’t 100% confirmed when he’d arrived on his own there, but more recently, US wildlife advocate Dean Bernal, who is now JoJo’s official guardian, confirmed that JoJo first arrived in 1984.
As per the official report by Guinness, apparently bottlenose dolphins are by far the most likely cetaceans to “go solo”, representing 78 of the 114 recorded individuals.
Which… we guess makes it a little better… but also still a little sad. Why can’t Fungie find himself a nice girlfriend dolphin, or boyfriend dolphin? Or does he just not want to settle down? He can’t be a player dolphin, because as far as we’re aware, there are no other dolphins hanging in and around Dingle?
Either way, even without a partner, he’s got fame. What other dolphin has Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt chatting about him during an interview about a movie with dinosaurs in it?
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