Dolphin Diaries

Dr. Denise Herzing began her research with a pod of spotted dolphins in the 1980s. Now, almost three decades later, she has forged strong ties with many of these individuals, has witnessed and recorded them feeding, playing, fighting, mating, giving birth and communicating. Dolphin Diaries is an account of Herzing's research and her surprising findings on wild dolphin behavior, interaction, and communication. Readers will be drawn into the highs and lows—the births and deaths, the discovery of unique and personalized behaviors, the threats dolphins face from environmental changes, and the many funny and wonderful encounters Denise painstakingly documented over many years. This is the perfect book for anyone who loves these incredibly versatile and intelligent creatures and wants to find out more than the dolphin show at the zoo can offer. Herzing is a true pioneer in her field and deserves a place in the pantheon of naturalists and scientists next to Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall.

Books 1-3 of Dolphin Diaries

Jody is at Dolphin Haven in the Bahamas where the dolphins are about to give birth.

Jody McGrath and her family are sailing around the world researching dolphins, and Jody records all their exciting adventures in her Dolphin Diaries. In the series' second book, The Dolphin Dreamer is at bay in Key West, Florida, visiting a very special dolphin center -- with "dolphin teachers." Jody loves watching the dolphins at work, but then one of them gets caught in netting. Jody frees the dolphin, and it swims away. When Jody and the crew begin to give up hope of ever seeing the dolphin again, it joyfully returns to the the dolphin center.

Reveals the shared ancestry behind our affinity with dolphins and our shared destiny • Explains how we are both descendants of the aquatic ape and still share many physiological features with dolphins that set us apart from other primates • Explores dolphins’ communication with other species and how dolphin therapy has miraculous effects on people with autism, cancer, stroke, and depression • Explores the connections between dolphins and Atlantis and Lemuria Wild animals avoid contact with humans, but wild dolphins seek us out to play and socialize, even going so far as to voluntarily rescue people from drowning. What explains this remarkable natural affinity? Revealing the evolutionary basis for our special relationship with dolphins, Frank Joseph explains how we are both descendants of the same ancient branch of human-ity. Building upon the aquatic ape theory, he details how we both began on land but devastating floods forced our distant ancestors into the seas, where humanity developed many of the traits that set us apart from other primates, such as our instinctive diving reflex and our newborns’ ability to swim. But while some of the aquatic apes returned to land, later evolving into modern humans, some remained in the cradle of Mother Ocean and became our dolphin cousins. Integrating scientific research on dolphin intelligence, communication, and physiology with enduring myths from some of the world’s oldest cultures, such as the Aborigines, Norse, Greeks, and Celts, the author examines our physical commonalities with dolphins, including their vestigial thumbs and legs, birth processes, and body temperature. He explores dolphins’ uncanny ability to diagnose disease such as cancer in humans and how dolphin therapy has had miraculous effects on children with autism, victims of stroke, and those suffering from depression. He provides evidence for dolphins’ different attitudes toward men, women, and children, their natural affinity with cats and dogs, and their telepathic communication with other species, including ours. He explores dolphins’ mysterious role in the birth of early civilization and their connections with the Dog Star, Sirius, and Atlantis and Lemuria--a bond still commemorated by annual gatherings of millions of dolphins. As Frank Joseph shows, if we can learn to fully communicate with dolphins, accessing their millennia-old oral tradition, we may learn the truth about humanity’s origins and our shared future, when humankind may yet again quit the land for a final return to the sea.

From Flipper to SeaWorld, dolphins have long captured our hearts. We love these friendly, intelligent mammals, and they seem to return our feelings—they enjoy interacting with swimmers and have been known to encircle people under attack by sharks. Despite our familiarity with dolphins, though, we remain ill-informed about how they evolved, how they function, and how they have interacted with humans for millennia. Dolphin dives into the dolphin’s zoology, as well as its social and cultural history, to offer a comprehensive view of these delightful creatures. Drawing on his years of experience working with and studying dolphins, Alan Rauch explores their propensity to live in pods and their ability to communicate through a variety of clicks, whistles, and other vocalizations. He examines their long relationship with humans, describing how they became the emblem of safe travel and charity, that the ancient Greeks featured them on coins, and that Hindu mythology associated them with Ganga, a river deity. As the rise in popularity of dolphinaria during the 1960s allowed the public access to dolphins, they became central characters in films like The Day of the Dolphin and Johnny Mnemonic and outsmarted humans in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Packed with images and thoughtful insights, Dolphin is a revealing look at one of our favorite sea creatures.

Experts survey the latest research on dolphin communication and cognition, offering a comprehensive reference to findings in the laboratory and from the field. Dolphin researchers have collected an impressive amount of data over the last twenty years, thanks to advances in technology for monitoring, recording, and analyzing dolphin behavior as well as increasing interest in exploring and modeling dolphins' cognitive capacities. This volume offers a comprehensive reference to the latest research on dolphin communication and cognition, reporting on findings from both the laboratory and the field. The contributors review a wide range of topics, including vocalization, abstract reasoning abilities, imitation and learning, social cognition, echolocation, and ethical issues in working with cetaceans. The book begins by examining the dolphin brain and its evolution, the anatomy of its unique sound production and reception systems, and its sensory abilities. It next treats communication, reviewing the complexity of dolphins' vocalization, and then describes research on cognition, from both experimental and developmental perspectives. Finally, the book considers the future of dolphin research, including a series of provocative questions that remain unanswered, posed by the volume's expert contributors. Contributors Mats Amundin, Whitlow Au, Ted W. Cranford, Nicola Erdsack, John Ford, Wolf Hanke, Louis M. Herman, Denise L. Herzing, Christine M. Johnson, Petr Krysl, Stan Kuczaj, Marc Lammers, Lori Marino, Paul Nachtigall, Julie Oswald, Adam A. Pack, Heidi Pearson, Sam Ridgway, Jeanette Thomas, Randall Wells, Thomas I. White, Hal Whitehead, Kelley Winship, Bernd Würsig

Describes the behavior, habitat, and life cycle of dolphins.