Animal Rescue Facts

Katy Perry has a cat named Kitty Purry.

In 2004, four lifeguards were swimming off Ocean Beach, New Zealand when a pod of seven dolphins suddenly herded them into a tight group and started circling. For 40 minutes, the dolphins swam inches from their bodies, slapping the water with their tails. When one swimmer tried to break away, two dolphins pushed him back. Only then did he spot the 9-foot great white shark circling two metres below them.

In 2017, marine biologist Nan Hauser was diving in the Cook Islands when a 50,000-pound humpback whale began pushing her. For 10 minutes it tucked her under its fin and nudged her toward her boat. She thought it was trying to kill her. Then she saw the 15-foot tiger shark below. The whale had been shielding her the whole time. 28 years studying whales. It had never happened. Caught on camera.

Two whales got stranded on a sandbar at Mahia Beach in New Zealand. A mother and her calf kept beaching themselves for over an hour. Rescuers were close to giving up. Then a wild dolphin named Moko showed up. The whales seemed to answer his calls. They followed Moko through a narrow channel and swam free.

Melby the manatee swam up a Florida storm drain chasing warm water during a cold snap and got stuck under a street, unable to turn around. Rescuers tore up 10,000 pounds of concrete to pull the 410-pound animal free. Eight weeks of rehab at SeaWorld later, Melby swam home 105 pounds heavier.

A young humpback whale got tangled in more than 800 feet of coaxial cable off Maui in 2017. It was something rescuers had never seen before. They cut it free, not knowing if it would survive. Seven years later, a stranger's photo of a whale's tail turned up on a tracking website. Researchers matched it to the very same whale. It was alive and fully healed.