WaterNotes

There are many hunting techniques recorded for various dolphin species around the world. As opportunistic and inventive hunters, they’ve found ways to corral and catch many different types of prey using strategies that often involve barriers, physical prowess, and outright deception.  In Australia one group uses sponges as tools; the females carry sponges over their [...]

Clearwater Marine Aquarium’s rescued superstar bottlenose dolphin Winter now has her own children’s book. Winter’s Tail: How One Little Dolphin Learned to Swim Again launched today, written by the Hatkoff’s who brought us the adorable Owen & Mzee story I’ve used in several zoo classroom environments.
Winter was brought in by Hubbs-SeaWorld Research [...]

National Geographic seems to have aquatic wildlife on the brain. Last month they reported on leatherback sea turtles and this month they’ve published a story by Mark Jenkins (with b-e-a-utiful photos from Kevin Schafer) of the boto, the Amazonian river dolphin.
The story is full of boto biology snippets that I’ve never previously [...]

While on a mission to find images of southern right whales I happened upon Dennis Buurman’s beautiful online gallery of marine mammals from the coasts of New Zealand.  Take a look at the images he presents including dusky dolphins, Hector’s dolphin, sperm whales, albatross, fur seals, and other ocean wildlife.  Just gorgeous.

The moment of truth has arrived. Let’s see if my attempts to memorize and list all the ocean going dolphins, all the porpoises, and all the freshwater dolphins have actually paid off.
Family Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins)
1.  Atlantic bottlenose
2.  Indopacific bottlenose
3.  Atlantic spotted
4.  Indopacific spotted
5.  Atlantic humpbacked dolphin
6.  Pacific humpbacked dolphin
7.  Northern right whale dolphin
8.  Southern [...]