'It was just easier to incorporate that and let it happen, it was very precious and very gentle, Peter was right there, he knew that I was right there.'

In the beginning I would put him on the elevator and say you go play with the girls for a day. 'I wasn't uncomfortable - as long as it wasn't too rough. He would rub himself on my knee, my foot or my hand and I allowed that. It was there she met Peter, an adolescent dolphin she described as 'sexually coming of age'.Īs the two bonded, their relationship soon progressed to a more physical level.

In 1963 she helped turn a house into a domestic dolphinarium by flooding it with knee-deep water, where researchers could study the animals from their home. A woman who had sex with a dolphin as part of a scientific study has spoken out for the first time.ĭuring the swinging 60s, animal researcher Margaret Howe Lovatt was part of a Nasa-funded experiment on the US Virgin Islands to teach the intelligent sea creatures how to speak English.