"The Way" of the Wavedancers

To continue with the earlier article describing Earthly dolphins (in Sendings #10), I'll talk today about their lifecycle and social behavior. Again, this information is based on the bottlenosed dolphin, but most of it applies equally well to the other species of dolphin.

First, however, imagine if you will the problems faced by an ethologist who wishes to study dolphins. (An ethologist is a scientist who observes animals as they go about their lives in their native habitats.) Sure, a Jane Goodall or a Dian Fossey can go out to the jungle armed with a notebook and little else. She can usually keep up with the chimps or the gorillas when they're on the move, and sit and take notes while they're at rest. (Not to trivialize the accomplishment! But at least it's doable.) Someone who wanted to study dolphin behavior in the wild would have to be prepared to swim as well as the dolphins do to keep up - impossible. It simply has not been done. What we know about the lives of dolphins comes from necessarily incomplete observations of wild dolphins, or from their behavior in captivity. So there is still much to learn, and some of what we know may even be wrong.

A baby dolphin is born after a twelve-month gestation. When the mother-to-be goes into labor, a companion from her pod (called an "auntie") often stands by to help her. The infant would probably drown if born headfirst, so it arrives flukes-first. That way, the blowhole is the last part to be born. The mother or the auntie then nudges the calf up to the surface to take its first breath. Like all mammals, the baby is nursed by the mother, lives off its mother's milk exclusively for about a year, and continues nursing for another year or so. Dolphin's milk is very rich, about half fat and half protein. Compare that to human's milk, which is very sweet (about 40% sugars) - a human or elfin child would probably think dolphin's milk tastes yucky! But it is very nutritious and, of course, perfect for a baby dolphin. Note, however, that milk is the only thing a dolphin ever drinks. They can't drink seawater any more than we can. They get all their liquid from the food (fish, squid, shrimp, etc.) they eat.

The mother is very protective of her baby. The young dolphin rides along close at its mother's side, where the mother's wake pulls the young one along with her. After about half a year the young dolphin begins to eat solid food. It learns to bite its food and taste it to make sure it's good. It doesn't really need to chew the food, as the dolphin's stomachs (yes, plural) can handle just about anything. Like all mammal children, the young are playful and ready to imitate their elders, and thus they learn the skills they'll need in adulthood. They practice different techniques for hunting and catching food, avoiding sharks, and everything else a dolphin needs to do to survive.

After a few years the young dolphins become more independent, but full maturity does not occur until about age twenty. The independent yet still immature dolphins live in juvenile groups in which they have sex, cavort, raise hell, and generally live up to the label "adolescent." After reaching adulthood, females usually live with a pod (a group of up to twelve individuals, mainly females and young). Most males pair off with a best buddy; the two are inseparable and the pair-bond lasts for life. Males generally roam further abroad than females, and this helps promote interbreeding between dolphin communities.

Dolphin communication is still a controversial topic, so let's start out with what is known. Each dolphin has a "signature whistle" - a unique sound that functions like a name. A dolphin will call out its own signature whistle to announce itself. Each female dolphin establishes a unique signature whistle for herself, while a male dolphin adopts a variation on his mother's. By the way, communication sounds are made by two independent mechanisms, and sonar bursts by a third mechanism. Thus, a dolphin could whistle from the right side of its blowhole, click from the left side, and be transmitting sonar pulses, simultaneously!

Dolphin communication, beyond signature whistles, is poorly understood. Experiments in the 1960's seem to have demonstrated the presence of fairly sophisticated communication. For example, a dolphin in one tank would be shown the location of a hidden object, which a dolphin in a second tank could not see. The second dolphin would then retrieve the object, as if the first dolphin had told it where to look. There doesn't seem to be any current research in this direction, probably for the same reasons that the Great Ape language studies have petered out - primarily, because the brand of linguistics that is critical of animal language abilities is currently in favor, and theory drives experimentation. Dolphin language could be symbol-oriented like our own (in which a sound corresponds to a specific concept) or something more exotic. John Lilly has speculated that a dolphin could emit sounds that, to a second dolphin, would sound like the second dolphin's own sonar clicks bouncing off some object - this would be the first dolphin's way of communicating that object in an abstract way to the second dolphin. (Sound a little bit like an elf's "sending"?)

Sex (at last, you say! <g>) - In captivity or in the wild, dolphins always have lots of sex play with a wide variety of partners. Dolphins don't even stick to their own species; bottle-nosed dolphins are the most indiscriminate and there are often half-bottlenose, half-something-else calves born. Generally the male swims upside down, chasing after the female and coming up beneath her to achieve penetration. The coupling is brief and often occurs while swimming at high speed. The dolphins are usually playful and having a great time, but sometimes males have been seen to gang up on an unwilling female and harass her until they get what they want. Male dolphins can also get randy with a human female who is menstruating, so watch out!