Dolphin calf dies after tourists use it for selfies

There isn't much that humans won't destroy to make their Facebook friendsjealous, it seems.

Reports of people losing theirphones,their freedoms and eventheir lives inthepursuit of a good selfiehave been rising steadily since 2014, whenthe first"selfie-related deaths" were reported bynews outlets.

According to the data crunchers at Priceonomics, 49 people made headlines during that span of time for dying while attempting to take smartphone self-portraits the majority of themfalling from heightstrying to capture an "extreme" moment for posterity or the promise of "likes."

Animals, too, have been threatened by this behaviour in the past. However, there hadn't been any widely reported cases of selfies actually killing wildlife until this week.

Argentinean animal rights organizationFundacin Vida Silvestre, an arm of TheWorld Wildlife Foundation, published a statement on Tuesday decrying the behaviour of tourists inBuenos Aires.

According to the statement, two Franciscan dolphins were swimming near a resort last week when they were taken from the water and"manipulated by tourists to photograph."

Footage shared by Vida Silvestre and local news sourcesshows a mob of tourists passing around one of the tiny dolphins, which arevulnerable to extinctionaccording to the International Union for Conservation, while swarming to take photos of it and with it.

"One of them ended up dying," reads the English translation of Vida Silvestre's statement on Facebook."Like other dolphins, they can not stay long out of the water because its thick skin provides internal heat, quickly causing dehydration and death."

News of the incident spread quickly online thanks tosocial media, international news coverage and celebrities including British comedianRicky Gervais, who referred to the tourists with an obscenity on both Instagram and Twitter.

"This terribly unfortunate event is an example of the casual cruelty people can inflict when they use animals for entertainment purposes, without thinking of the animal's needs," aspokeswoman for Australia's arm of World Animal Protectiontold ABC News.

"At least one of these dolphins suffered a horrific, traumatic and utterly unnecessary death, for the sake of a few photographs.Wild animals are not toys or photo props. They should be appreciated and left alone in the wild where they belong."

Many on Twitter expressed similar disdain for what appeared to be happening in photos and videos of theBuenos Aires beach mob.

On Thursday, a tourist who reportedlytook the original beachphotos told anArgentine television station the dolphin was dead when it arrived on the beach.

He said that several dolphins had already washed ashore due to the heat that day, and that tourists took pictures with the dolphinfor approximately five minutes.

"We took him back to the sea and he didn't swim back out," he said to Telefe Noticias, though this information has not been confirmed.

"They should have just called the authorities," saidVernica Garca ofVidaSilvestreduring an interview withCBC Radio's As It Happens, noting that people should never interfere withwild animals, even ifthey're dead or sick.

Garcasays hundreds of dolphins dieeach yearfrom the nets local fisherman use.

Her organization has alsobeen receiving stories from other concerned animal lovers since publicly condemning the dolphin-selfie tourists.

"Aguy took a dolphin from the water to show to the public and then threw it into the garbage," Garca said, quoting a tip she had read.