15.07.2018 – Who sets the tone?
July 23, 2018
17.07.2017 – Who is annoyed about spots, has never gone with us!
July 25, 2018
Amongst the lovely group of guests on board our traditional boat during the afternoon tour was a young girl who had joined me on a tour one year ago. Since her experience with us in Madeira, Annabella decided that she wanted to work with the sea and become a marine biologist. I understand Annabella because, a while ago, I was that little girl. Ever since I can remember I wanted to become a marine biologist. So, naturally, I bombarded any diver or biologist I met with all my questions. I always listened carefully to what they told me and was set on taking their advice but as life progresses, you realise that you tend to do things your way. Now I’m on the other side of things.
It’s a tale as old as time- we pass on our knowledge to younger generations so that they can filter what is necessary for them as individuals and hopefully do a better job in future.
Dolphins themselves are also constantly adapting, modifying lessons learnt from their older peers and improving them. Social learning, one of the building blocks of culture, is one of the most important aspects in a dolphins life. The course of such lessons, however, is shaped by the personality of the animal and this personality, in turn, is shaped by the lessons it learns from its peers. This means that dolphins don’t blindly mimic behaviours they observe in their older peers. The path of social learning is one of discovery during which the dolphins are very selective. Previous studies have stated that calves being more likely to indiscriminately mimic the behaviours of older animals and become more selective with age, but recent behavioural studies have shown that this is not necessarily the case. The degree to which every dolphin develops its own individual, complex behaviour while learning vocalizations or through foraging and playing with its peers, is ultimately dependent on its personality.
The fact that dolphins have personalities makes them even more amiable to us than they already are. The charismatic nature of dolphins makes them so-called flagship species; animals that can act as ambassadors for the protection of an ecosystem. On todays tours we saw Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) and Short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis), who undoubtedly charmed our guests enough to fall in love with the ocean. They definitely charmed a young girl enough to inspire her to dedicate her future career to the ocean; I’d say that’s something.
By Paula Thake
Sightings of the day
Ribeira Brava
09:00 Bottlenose dolphins
13:30 Bottlenose dolphins, Short-beaked common dolphins
Stenella
09:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins (Snorkelling)
18:00 Atlantic spotted dolphins, Bottlenose dolphins, Short-beaked common dolphins
