KAGOSHIMA - A playful young dolphin named Yuki at Kagoshima City Aquarium has become a social media sensation after videos showed her freely sliding along the poolside, spinning around and plunging back into the water while other dolphins followed their usual routines.
One of the videos was filmed on August 13 by a woman in her 30s who lives in Kagoshima City. After she posted the footage on social media, it quickly drew a large response, with viewers praising Yuki's cute and independent behavior.
Another widely shared post showed what appeared to be the same dolphin behaving freely near the front of the pool while the other dolphins prepared for a performance. The woman who filmed that video had visited Kagoshima from Tokyo as a tourist in January.
"I remember thinking there was a very free-spirited dolphin near the front," she said. "It did not seem like the kind of behavior you see from just any dolphin. When I saw the new video, I thought it looked familiar, checked my own footage and realized everything matched. I thought, 'That's the one.'"
Her post also went viral, prompting comments from people saying they wanted to visit the aquarium on their next family trip.
Yuki is the smallest dolphin at the aquarium and is a female bottlenose dolphin approaching 1 1/2 years old.
She was born at Kagoshima City Aquarium in February 2025, becoming the first dolphin born there in five years. Raising dolphins born in aquariums successfully can be difficult, but Yuki has continued to grow steadily.
During the aquarium's regular dolphin program, the other dolphins can perform a maneuver in which they propel themselves onto a stage in front of spectators. Yuki, however, remains close to her keeper because she has not yet learned to control the maneuver well enough to participate safely.
She can still perform other behaviors in response to signals from her keeper, drawing applause from visitors.
Although Yuki did not reproduce the dramatic sliding seen in the viral video during the visit, she climbed onto the side of the pool and played there.
Aquarium staff said the sliding behavior was not originally taught to Yuki by a keeper. Other dolphins sharing the pool sometimes play by sliding along the side, and the curious young dolphin appears to have learned the technique by watching and imitating them.
Visitors who had already seen Yuki on social media said they enjoyed watching her independent behavior in person. "She was moving around pretty freely, and that was nice," one visitor said. "She was cute."
Aquarium staff said they had been surprised by the scale of the online reaction and encouraged visitors to continue watching Yuki as she grows.
The aquarium said quieter periods when no dolphin event is being held may offer the best chance to see Yuki perform the graceful slides that have turned her into its newest social media star.
Source: KYT Kagoshima Yomiuri Television
