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##Dolphins – Conversation Lesson

Joe: Hey, I was just reading this really interesting article about dolphins and things related to the dolphin’s brain and different training that they’re doing. I don’t know if you guys have read anything about this.

Kristin: No, I haven’t. I actually just read an article recently that was talking more about them being rereleased back into the wild from captivity.

Joe: Were they able to just like come right back into the wild?

Kristin: No, no, actually they took two dolphins that were struggling in captivity and, y’know, thanks to movies like Blackfish, more and more people are getting upset about dolphins, orcas, orcas or killer whales which are actually also dolphins, being in captivity and thinking it’s cruel.

So there were these two dolphins that were in Turkey, I believe, and they were not…they were struggling in captivity. So, I think it’s Born to be Free, a British animal welfare group, came in and rescued them and hired an American guy who actually used to catch whales, dolphins in the wild and, y’know, so that they could be sold to parks, they got him, with mixed feelings because he doesn’t do that anymore, but they got him to come to train these two dolphins to be released back into the wild. You can’t just let them go. The article was talking about how 80% of dolphins in captivity are actually, they spend their time above water because that’s how they get fed. They’re looking for commands from people. They’re looking for applause and, y’know, they’re…basically they’re interacting with humans. Whereas dolphins in the wild spend 80% of their time underwater, foraging for fish and interacting with their pod. So it’s completely different. They have to be retrained to be able to go back into the wild.

Joe: Yeah, I guess there’s nothing to forage on the bottom of a large swimming pool at SeaWorld.

Kristin: No. That’s one of the things. It’s a sterile environment.

Joe: Yeah.

Kristin: And they don’t have the space either, like they do in the wild to really cover a lot of ground.

Y’know, interacting with each other and foraging for food and hunting, y’know, it’s completely different.

AJ: Yeah, because they’re, I believe I’ve read they are social hunters so they hunt in packs and this is probably one of the reasons, maybe one of the reasons that they’re intelligent. I know that, from what I have read, we still really don’t know a lot about, y’know, how they’re using their huge brains. Some people, I know, like John Lilly back…way back in the ’60s and others, believed they might have some form of language, maybe even a fairly complex language. But, y’know, they’re not sure. But it does kind Dolphins of point to what you’re saying that probably the best way to study them is in the wild in their natural environment. That’s where they’re going to be obviously healthier and happier. But it’s also where their natural communication and socializing and social behavior would be, obviously, the most real. So, yeah, you just hate to see, especially animals that intelligent caged up basically, in an aquarium. It’s sad.

Joe: Yeah, and the dolphin is, usually, is within a big group.

Kristin: Yeah, in a pod.

Joe: Yeah, they’d be in some large group and in captivity they’re probably just in groups of one or two, I would imagine, right?

Kristin: Right. And they may not even get along, like the two that were being reintroduced into the wild were two males and they weren’t even bonded. I mean they tolerated each other but… Joe: Yeah, I would imagine that would be something that they would really need to relearn, how to assimilate…and I guess it would even be a question as to whether they could assimilate into a group.

Kristin: They can! These two were successful. And then there were three others from Korea, South Korea, that were released off of Jeju Island, so it’s a trend now. Y’know, there was…we saw that movie Keiko about orcas, or about, sorry, the one orca that was in the movie Free Willy, he was rereleased.

Unfortunately, he…he still sought out human contact so I think he had a more difficult time. He never really…he never really acclimated back into the wild. I don’t think he ever really found any other orcas and he died a year later, I think from…from some kind of kidney condition or something. I don’t remember. But they are finding with dolphins, and I think that there is still hope that orcas can be released back into the wild. And, y’know, this article I read was talking about they, one of the things they have to be retaught is how to hunt because they’re so used to being fed dead fish.

Joe: Well, yeah, because, y’know, one of the things that dolphins do often is they hunt in groups, y’know? Like they’re…they’re really communal in that sense. Like a group of dolphins may circle a school of fish and they might swim around it really fast so the fish can’t leave and so they kind of huddle together, the school of fish…

Kristin: Yeah.

Joe: So then the dolphins will take turns eating. Well, if you’re one dolphin being released from captivity into the wild, you’re not going to have that group, y’know?

Kristin: But it’s not even that. This article I was reading was talking about how, y’know, once they started putting in live fish, these two dolphins, Tom and Misha, just looked at them like they were watching TV. They were just watching them swim by. They had no idea that was their food. They could not relate to…this is what I eat. Because they’re used to being handed dead fish from humans.

Joe: Y’know, another thing is these dolphins, y’know, they have a really acute sense of hearing and they communicate with each other about where fish are, y’know, where to find food essentially and also when there’s danger and stuff like that, so I would imagine that that would also be something that they would have to learn because, y’know, they…they communicate about dangers, as I was saying and that probably helps to protect them. They gather when there’s a danger, right? And a dolphin that’s been in captivity may not even know how to detect when that communication’s going on so I would imagine that would be something dangerous for them, too.

AJ: Yeah, maybe they have different dolphin languages and, you never know, because we don’t…we’re not really sure but they might have fairly complex language and it could be just like with humans, they have different languages, depending on their group, or their pod or their location. So it would be interesting if possibly a dolphin captured early or raised in captivity, maybe they can’t understand the other dolphins as well, when they have to learn the language. I don’t know. But it’s fascinating. It’s just fascinating what they’re using those big brains for.