{"id":418043,"date":"2026-10-03T22:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T22:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/418043\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T22:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T22:26:09","slug":"baby-dolphin-found-dead-near-south-end-of-fort-myers-beach-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/418043\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby dolphin found dead near south end of Fort Myers Beach | News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. (WINK) \u2014\u00a0A baby dolphin washed ashore in front Smugglers Cove on Fort Myers Beach Saturday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Monica Lynn with Pod Protectors, a local nonprofit dedicated to protecting wild dolphins, was on scene as Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers responded to remove the dolphin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">Officials say the female dolphin measured 42 inches, about the size of a newborn, and had not yet developed teeth.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Baby Dolphin2\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full default\" width=\"2025\" height=\"1023\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">It also was noted to have visible fetal bands along the dolphin\u2019s body, which indicate a very recent birth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"isSelectedEnd\">According to Lynn, an FWC officer said the dolphin\u2019s death could have been caused by \u201cfailure to thrive, or maternal separation.\u201d Separation from its mother can be life-threatening for a newborn dolphin, which depends on its mother for frequent nursing.<\/p>\n<p>Natural causes are also a possibility, but the exact cause of death was not confirmed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. (WINK) \u2014\u00a0A baby dolphin washed ashore in front Smugglers Cove on Fort Myers Beach&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,23664,3961,28,897,1695,165428],"class_list":["post-418043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-dolphin","tag-fish-and-wildlife-conservation-commission","tag-florida","tag-fort-myers","tag-fort-myers-beach","tag-monica-lynn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}