Kenneth S. Norris - Böcker

Dr. Norris tells us how the dolphins swim, find food, breathe in rough weather, and how they protect themselves in an underwater world totally without places to hide. Norris shows us how his scientific ideas evolve, takes us on a hair-raising trip aboard a tuna vessel where he and his colleagues dive in the net to search for solutions to the kill, and finally suggests how the “magic envelope,” the dolphins’ group protection system, might be the key to releasing them unharmed.

Twenty years in the making by a distinguished dolphin expert and his associates, "The Hawaiian Spinner Dolphin" is the first comprehensive scientific natural history of a dolphin species ever written. From their research camp at Kealakeakua Bay in Hawaii, these scientists followed a population of wild spinner dolphins by radio tracking their movements and, with the use of a windowed underwater vessel, observing the details of their underwater social life. The authors begin with a description of the spinner dolphin species, its morphology and systematics, and then examines the ocean environment, the organization of dolphin populations, and the way this school-based society of mammals uses shorelines for rest and instruction of the young. The dolphins' reproductive cycle, their vision, vocalization, hearing, breathing, and feeding, and the integration of the school are carefully analyzed. The authors conclude with a comprehensive evolutionary analysis of this marine cultural system, with its behavioral flexibility and high levels of cooperation.This absorbing book is the richest source available of new scientific insights about the lives of wild dophins and how their societies evolved at sea.

Wild dolphins are an elusive subject for behavioral studies: How can you 'do a Jane Goodall' on animals usually visible only as a glimpse of rolling dorsal fins heading for the horizon? In this unusual book, two of the best-known scientists in the marine-mammal field have assembled an astonishing variety of discoveries about dolphins. The contributions range from a graduate student's first paper to senior scientists summarizing a lifetime of research. The dolphins they have studied range from tiny spinners to majestic pilot whales, from killer whales to the familiar bottle-nosed dolphin. The research tactics vary just as widely: the researchers have followed dolphins in boats, tracked them from shore, dived among hundreds of them (plus a few sharks) in tuna fishing nets. They have used computers and airplanes, genetic analysis and artificial language, and learned to read the life history of a dolphin from the cross-section of a single tooth. Pryor and Norris are successful writers as well as scientists; the book is peppered with entertaining essays, by one or both editors, on the intriguing history of dolphin research."Dolphin Societies" not only surveys the most interesting recent research on dolphin behavior but also gives lay readers a fascinating look at the scientific mind at work.