Sea World dolphin Amity scares tourists with her ‘upside-down-I’m-dead’ routine

THIS cheeky veteran Gold Coast dolphin is scaring tourists with its ‘upside-down-I’m-dead’ routine.

Crazy dolphin scaring tourists by sunbaking on back on surface of water. Looking dead and bloated when it's really just cold.

PALE and motionless, bobbing belly-up on the surface of her pool, Amity the dolphin looks like tomorrow’s shark food.

But she’s not dead – just playing, catching warm winter rays with her mates at Dolphin Cove.

And the old girl with the distinctive speckled skin deserves to kick back and relax – after 17 years of research, she’s just been declared her own species.

MORE GOLD COAST NEWS & GALLERIES

Since moving to Sea World from Marineland in 1973, she had been considered an Indo Pacific Humpback dolphin – a rare enough species itself – but scientists this week formally named the Australian Humpback Dolphin as distinct from its northern cousin.

JUST CHILLING: Amity, a cheeky veteran dolphin looks to be playing dead by lying belly-up and floating on the water - it often causes tourists to raise the alarm wtih Sea World staff like dolphin trainer Lauren Griggs Picture: David Clark

Aside from Tin Can Bay, where the wild tourist-fed dolphins are also Aussie humpbacks, Sea World is the only place in the world people can see one up close.

With her zombie floating act, Amity – thought to be as old as 60 – has been ­scaring the scales off tourists and locals for years, making them dash for help, alerting staff of her apparent demise. After a few minutes, however, one or other of her youthful companions is likely to come over and ruin the fun, splashing her with a tail before swimming away, casting cheeky looks over whatever dolphins have instead of shoulders.

HAVING A LAUGH: A marine mammal trainer says Amity’s ‘playing dead’ trick is just “part of her personality” Picture: David Clark

Marine mammal trainer Shari Bryden said that Amity would sometimes change up her floating act by putting a towel over her flipper and waving it around as she lay on her back.

“It’s just her personality,” she said.

“Sometimes if we want her attention we have to turn the hose on, because she loves that too.”

As if playing dead was not quirky enough, Amity is also a hoarder, grabbing and hiding coins, sunnies or whatever else happens to fall into her watery territory.

“She has a little stash – sometimes our divers go in and raid it, but she just starts it again.”

Dolphins generally don’t live to be Amity’s age in the wild.

Hearing loss and other blows of getting old affect them the same way that they affect land- based mammals.

Ms Bryden said Amity was the park’s grandmother, trusted matriarch of Dolphin Cove, where her bottlenose buddies considered her one of their own.

“She’s a fantastic role model for them, she makes sure they don’t do anything she doesn’t know about,” she said.

“When there’s a baby born, the mums will always let Amity have the calves very early on so the mums can have a break.”