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Gavan P.L. Watson

A website proudly muddying the line between my private and public persona.

dolphins

Why are people intrigued about Dolphins protecting Chinese ships from Somali pirates?

April 17, 2009 by Gavan Leave a Comment

Dolphins protecting chinese ships from pirates

A recent story, that appears to have originated on Chinese news radio and picked up by Xinhuanet, suggests that thousands of dolphins helped protect a Chinese ship from attacking Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Best line in the whole thing:

The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their littleness befor [sic] the vast number of dolphins. The spectacular scene continued for a while.

While the story is, at the very least, over-exaggerated, and likely completely made-up, it’s interesting that this narrative has caught peoples’ attention (as of April 17th, it had been bookmarked 55 times on Delicious and had been dugg 43 times). My simple question is: why?

Posted in: Animals, Internet Tagged: chinese ships, de-humanizing, dolphins, gulf of aden, human-animal relationships, protect, somali pirates, somalia

Boto bling

March 29, 2008 by Gavan Leave a Comment

Freshwater dolphin

A recent article (hyperlink below) suggests that the male freshwater dolphins (Inia geoffrensis) that Heather and I got a chance to see in Peru this year (photographic evidence above) hold and thrash objects at the surface to “impress” females. What’s particularly interesting is this quote from the researcher:

“It’s particularly interesting that the complexity of this behavior in these dolphins is considerably greater than that in chimps,” Martin said. “Chimp males break off branches, thrash them around and make a lot of noise to show off how macho they are — bit like blokes with big motorbikes and Ferraris, I guess. Botos, however, are much more subtle, and often use their objects in what appears to be a ritualistic way.”

The complexity of the act sounds intruding.

Link

Posted in: Animals Tagged: boto, dolphins, freshwater dolphin, peru, photograph, pink river dolphin, research

About me

Gavan Watson headshot Work life? Director, Centre for Innovation in Teaching and Learning & Associate Vice President, Teaching and Learning at Memorial University with a Ph.D. in environmental education. Home life? Father, naturalist, photographer, husband, philosopher, & member of a hybrid human-dog pack.

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