Before the bottlenose dolphin turned up, the beached pygmy sperm whales were in clear distress.

But when Moko arrived at Mahia beach on the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, their mood changed and they followed him to safety.

The ability of some animals to communicate is well known.
And while many mammals have the ability to understand human language, they lack the capacity to articulate anything themselves, although apes have been known to use hand gestures. What's less well documented is the communication between species.

Justin Gregg, vice president of the Dolphin Communication Project, said it is possible that a bottle nose dolphin and a pygmy sperm whale could communicate in some way. "But it wouldn't be instructions like 'hey buddy the open ocean is over here follow me'," he says.

Dolphins use three forms of signalling to other dolphins - whistles, clicking and postures.

Dolphin rescues whales
Similar in size and colour to a bottlenose dolphin, it is possible that a pygmy sperm whale might have signals in common with a dolphin, just as different species of dolphins are known to share signals which might theoretically allow a form of basic inter-species communication.

But just as it's possible that Moko the dolphin and the stranded whales shared a signal, it is also possible that the whales just saw a vaguely similar creature and followed it.

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