The Dusky Dolphin

Summarizes our state of knowledge of a little dolphin - the southern hemisphere 'dusky', and compares its behavioral strategies in different environs. This book documents the 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.

Autorentext
Bernd Würsig, his students, and postdocs have studied marine mammals and sea birds on all continents, with present work mainly on dusky dolphins in diverse habitats of New Zealand, and beleaguered Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins of Hong Kong. His specialties are behavior and social strategies, especially as related to human disturbance. He has published and co-published about 180 peer review papers, over 50 popular articles, and 7 books. He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Marine Biology of Texas A&M University at Galveston.

Klappentext

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 fist 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 1,000 in the open ocean. This book documents the latest research, from their feeding paterns to their acrobatic skills. It is full of scientific facts, with a sense of poetry and wonder of the unknown.

Inhalt

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