Dusky Dolphin: Master Acrobat Off Different Shores

Much has been written about dolphins and whales, and excellent books exist especially on the charismatic bottlenose dolphins; and killer, humpback, and sperm whales. But detailed studies have been carried out on a handful of other species, and this book summarizes our state of knowledge of a little dolphin – the southern hemisphere “dusky,” and compares its behavioral strategies in different environs. The editors, Bernd and Mel Würsig, began studying duskies in Patagonia Argentina in 1972. Although they have been to many parts of the Earth since then -- including work on Amazon and Yangtze river dolphins, Hawai’i for the delicate lovely spinner dolphin, the Arctic for bowhead and gray whale work, and bottlenose dolphins in several milieus -- they have always returned to their first love of unraveling the social patterns and life strategies of duskies that exist in small groups in semi-enclosed bays and as herds of well over one thousand in the open ocean. This book documents the latest research, from their feeding patterns to their acrobatic skills. It is full of scientific facts, with a sense of poetry and wonder of the unknown.



Readership
Marine biologists; mammalogists; students of animal behavior; students of social ecology

Contents


Chapter 1: The Dusky Dolphins’ Place in the Delphinid Family Tree


Chapter 2: Dusky Dolphin Life History and Demography


Chapter 3: Dusky Dolphin Trophic Ecology: Their Role in the Food Web


Chapter 4: Acoustics of Dusky Dolphins


Chapter 5: Dusky Dolphins Foraging at Night


Chapter 6: Dusky Dolphins Foraging in Daylight


Chapter 7: Predator Threats and Dusky Dolphin Survival Strategies


Chapter 8: Mating Habits of New Zealand Dusky Dolphins


Chapter 9: Dusky Dolphin Calf Rearing


Chapter 10: Dusky Dolphin Sexual Segregation and Genetic Relatedness in New Zealand


Chapter 11: Human Interactions with Dusky Dolphins: Harvest, Fisheries, Habitat Alteration, and Tourism


Chapter 12: Human Interactions, A Management Perspective with Focus on Dusky Dolphins


Chapter 13: Dolphin Swimming and Watching: One Tourism Operator's perspective

Dennis Buurman


Chapter 14: Neglected but not Forgotten: Southern Africa's Dusky Dolphin


Chapter 15: Patterns of Sympatry in Lagenorhynchus and Cephalorhynchus: Dolphins in Different Habitats


Chapter 16: A Large-Brained Social Mammal


Chapter 17: Social Creatures in a Changing Sea: Concluding Remarks


Author Information
By Bernd Wursig, Texas A&M University, Galveston, Texas, USA and Melany Wursig