Re:Dolphins at popular spot miss tourists and keep leaving '...
by keenmaster on Thursday May 21, 2020 @07:17PM
(#23266751)
Many animals exhibit play behavior, which has numerous benefits. The complexity of the play behavior is fairly bounded. Maybe that dolphin demonstrated an advanced form of it relative to other types of animals.
The animal section of the Play wiki is interesting, especially the cognitive theories https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Play_(activity)?wprov=sfti1
All of this is to say what everyone else is saying. They're complex creatures with sometimes non-trivial motivations.