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Post Info TOPIC: Delphinidae
Blobrana


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Divided dolphin societies merge 'for first time'

A unique social division among a population of bottlenose dolphins in Australia's Moreton Bay has ended, according to a new study.
The dolphins lived as two distinct groups that rarely interacted, one of which foraged on trawler bycatch.
But scientists think that a ban on fishing boats from key areas has brought the two groups together.
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Blobrana


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Tursiops australis
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New species of dolphin discovered

Researchers have determined that dolphins found in southeastern Australia represent a previously unknown species.
Around 150 of the dolphins live around the Melbourne area and had until now been assumed to be one of the known bottlenose dolphins.
But detailed DNA studies and analysis of skulls in museums showed the two populations are in fact a new species.
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Blobrana


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Moray Firth dolphins
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The Moray Firth dolphin population is one of two resident populations to be found in British waters. The bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), which you can see swimming past Portknockie are special as the most northerly resident dolphin population in the world.
They are usually close in-shore searching for food and they leap frequently from the water with characteristic exuberance. Hence the local names "tumblers" and "louper dogs".
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Ed ~ loupers are jumpers in the local Doric



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Blobrana


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Title: The Ecological Conditions That Favor Tool Use and Innovation in Wild Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops sp.)
Authors: Eric M. Patterson, Janet Mann

Dolphins are well known for their exquisite echolocation abilities, which enable them to detect and discriminate prey species and even locate buried prey. While these skills are widely used during foraging, some dolphins use tools to locate and extract prey. In the only known case of tool use in free-ranging cetaceans, a subset of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) in Shark Bay, Western Australia habitually employs marine basket sponge tools to locate and ferret prey from the seafloor. While it is clear that sponges protect dolphins' rostra while searching for prey, it is still not known why dolphins probe the substrate at all instead of merely echolocating for buried prey as documented at other sites. By 'sponge foraging' ourselves, we show that these dolphins target prey that both lack swimbladders and burrow in a rubble-littered substrate. Delphinid echolocation and vision are critical for hunting but less effective on such prey. Consequently, if dolphins are to access this burrowing, swimbladderless prey, they must probe the seafloor and in turn benefit from using protective sponges. We suggest that these tools have allowed sponge foraging dolphins to exploit an empty niche inaccessible to their non-tool-using counterparts. Our study identifies the underlying ecological basis of dolphin tool use and strengthens our understanding of the conditions that favor tool use and innovation in the wild.

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Blobrana


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Fishermen in Japan's dolphin-hunting town of Taiji have extended their catch season by one month and this week caught some 60 long-finned pilot whales, according to a local official.
Every year the town's fishermen corral about 2,000 dolphins into a secluded bay, select a few dozen for sale to aquariums and slaughter the rest for meat, a practice long deplored by animal rights campaigners.
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Blobrana


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A Star Is Overdue As A Cove Guardian In Taiji, Japan

The horrific slaughters depicted in the Academy Award winning film 'The Cove' are still happening. More than 800 sentient beings have had their lives snuffed out since early September of 2010; some of them have even been held underwater and drowned. After witnessing their families murdered, others have been hauled off to a life of slavery in Marine Theme Parks to do tricks for food.


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Blobrana


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The Cove
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The Cove is a 2009 documentary film that describes the annual killing of dolphins in a Quasi-National Park at Taiji, Wakayama, in Japan from an ocean conservationist's point of view.
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Blobrana


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Wild dolphins in Australia are naturally learning to "walk" on water.
Six dolphins have now been seen mastering the technique - furiously paddling their tail fluke, forcing their body out and across the water.
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Blobrana


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Scientists say dolphins should be treated as 'non-human persons'

Dolphins have been declared the world's second most intelligent creatures after humans, with scientists suggesting they are so bright that they should be treated as "non-human persons".
Studies into dolphin behaviour have highlighted how similar their communications are to those of humans and that they are brighter than chimpanzees. These have been backed up by anatomical research showing that dolphin brains have many key features associated with high intelligence.
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Blobrana


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Dolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in seventeen genera.
They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, mostly eating fish and squid. The family Delphinidae is the largest in the Cetacean  order, and relatively recent: dolphins evolved about ten million years ago, during the Miocene. Dolphins are among the most intelligent animals and their often friendly appearance and seemingly playful attitude have made them popular in human culture.
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