【I Am a Plaything】

A bottlenose dolphin is I Am a Playthinghealing nicely after suffering from a horrific sunburn, researchers say.

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Spirtle the dolphin was stranded on a beach in Cromarty Firth, Scotland, in July 2016. She was believed to have been on the beach for 24 hours before rescuers floated her back out to water. As a result of being stranded, Spirtle suffered sunburn wounds that were quite serious, and, coupled with her dehydration, rescuers weren't sure the young dolphin would survive.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Researchers from the University of Aberdeen photographed Spirtle over the year as part of a photo identification survey to track her progress. The dolphin lives within a special conservation area in Moray Firth, an inlet in the North Sea, along with about 200 other bottlenose dolphins.

Recently, the team said it was happy to discover the dolphin has been making an amazing recovery.

This photo was taken days after Spirtle was stranded in July 2016

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

The skin damage was severe.

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This photograph was taken in September 2016

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Researchers noticed that Spirtle had kept her distance from the other dolphins, potentially to avoid physical social behaviors such as rubbing each other with their flippers.

Spirtle's wounds underwent substantial healing in the two months since the stranding, but the team wasn't certain that the dolphin would survive the winter.

This latest photograph was taken on May 25, 2017

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

"We were surprised by the progress of the healing, with the wound almost entirely healed," said Barbara Cheney, a research fellow at the University of Aberdeen.

"She was in the middle of a group of dolphins behaving like any other 5-year-old dolphin," Cheney said.

The University of Aberdeen will continue to monitor Spirtle's healing and her maturation.

"She is now 5 years old and females can have calves anywhere from 6 to 14 years old," Cheney said, adding that the average age is nine. "So hopefully there will still be good news of Spirtle over the next few years."

We'd love nothing more than to see Spirtle with a completely healed wound and perhaps a baby Spirtle swimming alongside her.

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