The Dusky Dolphin

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.

"... this beautifully illustrated book, with many color photos (e.g., p. 247) and close to a thousand combined references at the end for easy look-up, is the very best to date describing our current state of knowledge on the dusky dolphin—and in doing so shedding light on the life of any other delphinid, too, for that matter. The Dusky Dolphin, simply put, is one of those classics which should not be missing from the shelves of anyone in the marine mammal field." --Michiel Schotten, Department of Marine Biology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands"Chapters are well written and the mostly high-quality color figures are useful and relevant. This volume illustrates that the incremental progress made in any individual study can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of a species. This ‘big picture’ is lacking for many species, but is sorely needed as management issues continue to become more complicated and pressing as we move further into the 21st century." --Quarterly Review of Biology, September 2012, page 273

• Chapter 1: The Dusky Dolphins’ Place in the Delphinid Family TreeChapter 2: Dusky Dolphin Life History and DemographyChapter 3: Dusky Dolphin Trophic Ecology: Their Role in the Food WebChapter 4: Acoustics of Dusky DolphinsChapter 5: Dusky Dolphins Foraging at NightChapter 6: Dusky Dolphins Foraging in DaylightChapter 7: Predator Threats and Dusky Dolphin Survival StrategiesChapter 8: Mating Habits of New Zealand Dusky DolphinsChapter 9: Dusky Dolphin Calf RearingChapter 10: Dusky Dolphin Sexual Segregation and Genetic Relatedness in New ZealandChapter 11: Human Interactions with Dusky Dolphins: Harvest, Fisheries, Habitat Alteration, and TourismChapter 12: Human Interactions, A Management Perspective with Focus on Dusky DolphinsChapter 13: Dolphin Swimming and Watching: One Tourism Operator's perspectiveDennis BuurmanChapter 14: Neglected but not Forgotten: Southern Africa's Dusky DolphinChapter 15: Patterns of Sympatry in Lagenorhynchus and Cephalorhynchus: Dolphins in Different HabitatsChapter 16: A Large-Brained Social MammalChapter 17: Social Creatures in a Changing Sea: Concluding Remarks