A dolphin in Ukraine has been trained to jump out of the pool and crawl along with humans.

This is Gosha, a 15-year old dolphin, crawling.

Gosha’s trainer is Bogdan Dolgy, from an aquarium in Sebastopol in Ukraine. Dolgy was able to teach the 440 lb. Black Sea bottlenose dolphin to jump out of water and crawl some 10 meters on its own this past summer.

And while humans crawl before they walk, it seems Gosha is doing its best to imitate its trainers.

[Bogdan Dolgy, Dolphin Trainer]:
“I noticed once that a dolphin crawls out of the water to the swimming pool edge when some person is walking alongside the pool. The dolphin follows the human trying to imitate his or her movements, by simply crawling. However it’s not just rolling on the ground but really crawling.”

The dolphin needs a flat, smooth surface to prevent injury and the trick can tire Gosha out quickly, but Dolgy says Gosha really enjoys crawling.

[Bogdan Dolgy, Dolphin Trainer]:
“After I noticed that I fixed it in his mind, gave him some fish and he liked it, and now it happens all the time, after every stunt he is swimming and splashing his tail on the surface of the water.”

The Sebastopol dolphinarium hosts about 10 dolphins regularly, but only three are continuously trained to perform tricks.