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Dolphins call each other by name?
An article titled “Vocal copying of individually distinctive signature whistles in bottlenose dolphins” is in the news this week. This is the latest in a series of studies from researchers at the...
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Killer Ukrainian dolphins on the loose
Uh oh – it seems the Ukrainian Navy has a small problem on their hands. After rebooting the Soviet Union’s marine mammal program just last year with the goal of teaching dolphins to find underwater...
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Ukrainian killer dolphins – the saga continues
Yesterday’s story about killer Ukrainian dolphins on the loose appears to have gone viral, with a handful of news agencies and blogs citing my blog entry as the basis for the story (e.g., The Atlantic,...
View ArticleEscaped killer dolphins a hoax? Maybe, maybe not.
The killer Ukrainian dolphin story has now been declared a hoax by the media (e.g.,Salon, MSN, Outside). An initial news report from the Russian news agency RIA Novosti suggested that Ukrainian...
View ArticleEscaped killer dolphin story confirmed as bogus
The Russian news agency that first broke the story of escaped killer dolphins (RIA Novosti) has, as of this morning, run an article suggesting that the news story is entirely bogus. According to the...
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Bizarre video footage of a dolphin exhaling air from her eye socket
In this bizarre video footage, a female Indo-Pacific dolphin is seen exhaling or leaking air from her left eye socket. In case you might not be familiar with dolphin anatomy, dolphins aren’t meant to...
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Is that a dolphin whistle I hear? No, it’s either a submarine or Harland...
claimtoken-516ec066cd42e As we all know from watching The Hunt for Red October, submarine sonar operators have an almost super-human ability to identify underwater sounds. They can tell the difference...
View ArticleDolphin brains and the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis: a dubious link
Did dolphins evolve large brains because they ate seafood? This was a suggestion put forth by a proponent of the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis (AAH) in a recent article in the Guardian. The AAH attempts to...
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Dolphin Assisted Birth: Chumming the Waters with Good Intentions
The Charlotte Observer reported yesterday on a couple headed to Hawaii with the plan of giving birth in the open ocean in the presence of wild dolphins. The interwebs’ WTF-detector went into immediate...
View ArticleThe “Dolphin Rape” Myth
Google the term “dolphin rape” and you’ll find countless references to male dolphins raping female dolphins, males raping other males, gang rape, and even dolphins raping humans. You might even find...
View ArticleJust so we’re clear: Dolphins are pretty smart
My book (Are Dolphins Really Smart? The Mammal Behind the Myth) is slated for publication in a few weeks, and I’ve just seen my first review/summary of the book online – posted by Jessa Gamble over at...
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Dolphin wet dreams: spontaneous ejaculation in a dolphin (never before seen)
Get a load of this everyone: researchers have – for the very first time – recorded a case of spontaneous ejaculation in a wild dolphin. This world premier video (below) shows a male Indo-Pacific...
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Are dolphins dumb?
Dolphins are certainly not dumb, but there’s more to the story of dolphin intelligence than most people would like to believe. Ever since the neuroscientist John C. Lilly declared dolphins to be “more...
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Top 5 Most Endangered Dolphin Species (and how you can help)
Although many dolphin species enjoy happy, healthy population numbers, there are a handful of species that are drawing closer to extinction with each passing year. In honor of World Animal Day, here...
View ArticleBlowhole access denied
Ricky Gervais is standing on stage at Carnegie Hall underneath a three meter tall drawing of a dolphin inserting his penis into the blowhole of another dolphin. “I’ve never seen that on any wildlife...
View ArticleEvidence for dolphins getting “high” on puffer fish toxin is weak
I’ve finally been able to view the much-hyped footage of dolphins getting “high” on the toxin produced by puffer fish which has been making international headlines as of late, and I am not convinced....
View ArticleScientists confirm that gray seals kill and eat harbor porpoises
Jan Haelters, a marine biologist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, has long believed that gray seals are capable of attacking, killing, and eating harbor porpoises. But nobody had...
View ArticleMedia stuff you shouldn’t miss
A new series will be premiering on PBS on April 9th called “Inside Animal Minds.” I will make my television debut as a talking head on all three episodes, which will also feature footage of the Dolphin...
View ArticleDolphin Social Smarts on PBS
The third episode of Nova’s Inside Animal Minds series explored the idea that social living might have allowed intelligence to blossom in some species – like dolphins, elephants, and the great apes...
View ArticleMargaret Howe didn’t really “have sex” with that dolphin. But there was LSD.
An upcoming documentary on John Lilly’s famous dolphin-masturbation and LSD experiments from the 1960s is making headlines this week. These experiments involved a woman – Margaret Howe – living...
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