The Dolphin Pod

This is our first episode for the new and improved version of The Dolphin Pod. In this week’s episode, we will unveil the new dolphin pod format, review breaking Dolphin News from around the world, focus our Science Spotlight on the top 5 myths about dolphins, and in our new Kids’ Science Quickie, introduce you to a blind teenager who uses echolocation like a dolphin in order to navigate his surro...

Hello dolphin pod listeners. You may have noticed that episodes have not been released all that frequently in recent months. It's not because we here at the dolphin pod have lost interest – quite the contrary. We have been working on a brand new look and feel to the dolphin pod, together with an upgrade to our recording equipment. We are also hammering out plans for a new sponsorship scheme so tha...

Learn all about dolphin vocalizations and dolphin sounds in this week’s episode, featuring real audio recorded this summer from wild dolphins at our research field site at Mikura Island in Japan. Transcript :: Read a transcript of this episode DCP's 2007 Research :: Read about DCP's 2007 research from Mikura Island in Japan File Download (8:05 min / 7.4 MB)

You may recall from The Dolphin Pod episode titled “Herman's Dolphin Prodigies” that dolphins have proven themselves to be capable of understanding the human pointing gesture. Dr. Louis Herman and his research team have shown that dolphins, when given a pointing arm and finger gesture to indicate an object, understand that this gesture is a cue to the location of an object. This might sound like a...

Dolphins have been observed creating and playing with intricate bubble rings. Learn all about bubble ring play in dolphins in this week’s episode. Transcript :: Read a transcript of this episode Bubble Rings :: More about bubble rings Beluga Blows Bubble Ring :: Watch a beluga whale blow a bubble ring and then catch it More Beluga Bubble rings :: A beluga whale blows a spectacular bubble ring File...

In just a few days, the Dolphin Communication Project will begin our research on Mikura Island in Japan for our summer 2007 field season. The tiny, dormant volcanic island of Mikura lies 200 km south of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean. The island is home to 300 human beings and about 180 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins. Learn more about our research on Mikura in this week’s episode. Transcript :: Read...

Today is Earth Day 2007. According to the Earth Day Network Web site, the focus of this year's Earth Day is “A Call for Action on Climate Change”. Climate change is a topic that is in the news a lot lately, but one rarely finds a connection between climate change and dolphins. However, there is one species of cetacean that is on the front lines of this battle against climate change: the narwhal. Y...

This week's episode of The Dolphin Pod is not actually about dolphins, but this little gem was simply too precious to ignore. Learn all about some very special poop-sniffing dogs that are helping researchers to learn more about endangered whales in this week’s episode. Transcript :: Read a transcript of this week's episode with web links The scent of a whale :: Read an article from the Boston Glob...

Scientists think that dolphin's teeth aren't just for grabbing – a hypothesis that is gaining considerable support suggests that dolphin teeth might be used as an antenna. Not an antenna for picking up radio or television signals (dolphins probably aren't too bothered if they miss an episode or two of Survivor), but for detecting sonar signals. Learn more about the strange properties of dolphin te...

In today's episode, we will shed light on the ancient history of the word ‘dolphin'. Transcript :: Read a transcript of this episode File Download (8:47 min / 8.1 MB)

This week’s episode reveals how dolphins manage to spend their entire lives in an aquatic environment (an almost zero gravity environment) without ever getting seasick or dizzy. It’s all thanks to some important evolutionary changes to their vestibular sense – one of the most important, and often overlooked, of the senses. Learn all about the vestibular sense in this week’s episode. Transcript of...

If you are a regular listener to the Dolphin Pod, then you’ll be aware of the power and versatility of a dolphin’s echolocation system. If you are inclined to be jealous of the sensory systems of other animals, you could do worse than to envy dolphin biosonar. It is pretty cool stuff. At least, you can rest assured that humans outshine dolphins when it comes to vision, right? Not so fast my simian...

This week's episode features a personal essay about my experiences of swimming with Fungie – the famous solitary dolphin who has been living near the town of Dingle on the west coast of Ireland. Stay tuned for future episodes about lone, sociable dolphins and the whale and dolphin watching industry featured this month on The Dolphin Pod. This week’s episode features music from the Irish traditiona...

The narwhal is perhaps one of the most easily recognizable of all cetaceans thanks to their distinctive long tusks. Learn more about the narwhal’s tusks and what it is used for in this week’s episode. Transcript of this episode :: Read a transcript of this week's episode with web links Narwhal info :: Learn more about the narwhal's tusk Mr. Narhwal :: Explore the world of Mr. Narhwal and Buddy the...

2007 is a year with major significance for dolphin enthusiasts as it has been officially declared the Year of the Dolphin! You might have heard about this in the news. But what on earth is the Year of the Dolphin all about, and who has the authority to declare such things? Learn all about the Year of the Dolphin in this week’s podcast. Transcript of this episode :: Read a transcript of this week's...

The dolphin blogosphere has been expanding in recent weeks. A brand new podcast has just been released by the Act for Dolphins campaign. This podcast focuses on the campaign to stop the slaughter of wild dolphins in Japanese waters. To subscribe to the podcast, visit actfordolphins.podomatic.com In addition, scientist David Lusseau has created a new blog highlighting conservations efforts focused...

A special holiday greeting from The Dolphin Pod. File Download (2:19 min / 2.1 MB)

In this week’s episode, we will discuss the baiji; a very special dolphin that has recently made its way into the news for all of the wrong reasons. Transcipt of this episode :: Read a transcript of this week's episode with weblinks The Baiji.org Foundation :: Learnmore about hte Baiji at the website of the Baiji.org foundation File Download (7:33 min / 6.9 MB)

Researchers at the Dolphin Communication Project get a lot of questions from the public about dolphin behavior, but one question above all the others has given us the biggest kick. And, sparked a rather interesting answer. The question, posed to us once by a young dolphin enthusiast, was ‘How do dolphins get married?' Not ‘do dolphins get married' mind you, but ‘how do they get married'. Learn the...