The 10-second video clip, which was posted on the official social media accounts of Dubai Mall, showed a whale swimming to the surface as it flipped out of the water and twirled, before diving right back in.
The video was accompanied with the caption: “Wait, what? The Dubai Fountain at The Dubai Mall is always full of surprises.”
Some reactions on social media ranged from praise to outright shock, which included comments such as: “Send it back where it belongs. Guess we have played enough with the nature already. Time to get things right,” and “please don’t do this”.
However, Dubai Mall were quick to emphasise that the whale was not real but computer animated.
“Don’t worry it isn’t real, we just had a whales of a time creating this for you!” said Dubai Mall, explaining that no whales were injured in the process and that the post was actually a CGI video.