The baby died on the beach (Picture: Solar Pix)

A baby dolphin died after tourists pulled it from the sea to take selfies.

The small female lost its mother and became stranded in shallow waters off the coast of southern Spain last week.

It was then plucked from the water by holidaymakers who stroked it and passed it round for pictures.

Marine conservationists raced to the scene, but the dolphin was already dead when they arrived.

Equinac, a group which protects marine wildlife in the area, reported the incident on its Facebook page and criticised the bathers for being ‘obsessed’ with taking photographs.

The incident happened last Friday on a beach at Mojacar (Picture: SolarPix)
The dolphin lost its mother and became stranded in shallow waters (Picture: SolarPix)

They said: ‘Humans are the most irrational animal there is.

‘Many people are unable to feel empathy for a living being which is frightened, starving hungry, without its mother and terrified.

‘In their selfishness, all they want is to photograph it and touch it, even if the animal is suffering from stress.’

The incident happened last Friday on a beach at Mojacar, a seaside resort popular with British expats and holidaymakers in the province of Almeria.

Equinac said hundreds of bathers rushed towards the animal desperate for a glimpse or a photo.

It said the lifeguard ‘lost his nerve when he saw hundreds of people rushing towards the animal’.

The group added: ‘The animal was submitted to the curiosity of those who wanted to photograph and touch it.

‘The photographs showed children touching the animal, unintentionally covering the spiracle (blowhole).

The group said the bathers should have called emergency services (Picture: SolarPix)
Equinac said hundreds of bathers rushed towards the animal desperate for a glimpse or a photo (Picture: SolarPix)

‘It’s not an animal for children or adults to caress.

‘Cetaceans are very susceptible to stress, and crowding round it to take photos and to touch it causes them a big shock which greatly accelerates a cardiorespiratory failure, which is what happened.

‘We’re not saying that the bathers were responsible for it becoming stranded. It became stranded because it was sick or because it lost its mother, without whom it cannot survive.

‘But crowding round to photograph and touch it of course causes these animals to become extremely stressed.’

The group said the bathers should have called emergency services.

They added: ‘Maybe we would not have been able to save it, but we would have tried.’