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Dolphin Watch
Ocean commotion
By ANN WEAVER
Article published on Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2007
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![[Image]](/content_images/011707_out-01.jpg) |
| Photo by ANN WEAVER |
| Little X rolls on its side to poke Steve, the one with the shark scar on its head, as DD2 spyhops over the pair. |
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One beautiful October day, a mother bottlenose dolphin and her calf milled around a small man-made island. Known romantically as the Junk Spoil, the island was left behind by the 1960s Army Corp of Engineer activities that created land for homes here.
About the time I saw the dolphin pair and turned to approach them, they approached me instead. They slid under the bow of the boat in behavior I call an ‘interested pass.’ It was P and her yearling calf PC.
P got her name because we were naming dolphins by letters of the alphabet and were at the Ps when we first recognized her.
Letters of the alphabet make good gender-free names. We rarely know the gender of free-ranging dolphins, one exception is a mother with a calf. PC is not named for the computer. In the trend for reducing words to acronyms, PC is short for P’s Calf.
P and PC continued onto the shallows around the island. There, they meandered around without really going anywhere or doing anything. In my data, I noted their slow directionless swimming and frequent surfacings in a small area as slow milling.
There are two basic ways to describe animal behavior. One is literal. The other is the purpose of the behavior, a functional description. Milling was the literal description of their behavior. It would take a while to realize the function of their behavior: They were waiting. Today, milling was the dolphin version of a person in a doctor’s waiting room.
Then DD2 appeared. DD2 is a bull. Why name a dolphin DD? We were going through the alphabet a second time, doubling the letters to name identifiable dolphins (those with a unique mark that makes them distinct). DD2 is unique for his split dorsal fin. There is another dolphin with a split fin, called DD1, because we recognized her first.
DD2 cavorted with PC. P swam nearby. Then she joined them. The two large dolphins and one small dolphin quietly rolled and nudged, bobbing at the water surface in an appealing tableau of gray against green against blue sky.
A group of dolphins approached from the west. They joined the tableau directly. It was X and Split with their kids, Little X and Steve, respectively (Steve and the shark). Steve is an exception in that we know his gender, a chance observation during another day of play.
They converged and milled around. The calves wrestled. In the distant south, a huge yellow boat appeared. It leaves the biggest wake of any boat around here. It provoked two thoughts. One, if I stayed where I was, I would soon be the one bobbing in a tableau but mine would look ridiculous. Two, maybe the dolphins will surf the boat’s waves.
That’s when I realized that maybe the dolphins were waiting for this giant boat to surf. Zoo animals clearly have a sense of time. Why shouldn’t free-ranging animals?
Dolphins around here are not particularly playful compared to dolphins I’ve studied elsewhere in the world. However, P likes to surf. We might predict that PC will be a good and willing surfer as well.
I moved to a safer location. Sure enough, the giant boat raced by and the dolphins disappeared in its mighty waves, appearing as intermittent airborne silhouettes in the front bow wave or voluminous wake waves. People onboard screamed with pleasure.
The giant boat slowed to make a broad left turn. The dolphins dropped off and resumed milling. I too milled and watched.
They began a slow parade northward (Kids up front). Like a slow family stroll through the park, mothers X, Split and P formed the front rank. DD2 dawdled with calves Steve, Little X and PC in the back, wrestling as they swam. They passed over a cloud of fish without apparent pause.
PC was the youngest of the calves. So it was interesting that it was P who eventually dropped back to the wrestling group to retrieve PC as if to say, “Ok, that's enough. Time to move on.” So what is time to animals who are active 24 hours a day? That’s my mystery.
Dr. Weaver studies wild dolphins under federal permit GA1088-1815, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Contact her at acweaver@tampabay.rr.com.
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Article published on Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2007
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