The life of a bottlenose dolphin can be surprisingly rough, with individuals chasing, biting, and smashing themselves against each other in the struggle for social dominance. Sometimes, males form long-lasting alliances with each other to gain an edge, but as new research shows, not at the expense of losing an…
After all of those years of humans holding dolphins in shackles, mocking them with cutesy depictions in the media, and forcing them to do tricks under inhumane conditions at theme parks, the cetaceans may finally have their revenge. They’re attacking our fisheries.
Rescuers in Australia’s Hamelin Bay are struggling to save six short-finned pilot whales out of an estimated 150 who beached themselves on the rocky shore earlier today.
Marine biologists working off the northwest coast of Australia have observed a rare mating display in which male dolphins were seen gathering and offering large marine sponges to females. Scientists have never seen this behavior in dolphins before, highlighting a previously unknown level of social complexity.
An international team of researchers has uncovered tell-tale signs of Alzheimer’s disease in dolphins, marking the first time that the age-related disorder has been detected in a wild animal.
Last year brought what seemed like a disturbing omen to communities surrounding Europe’s North Sea: a whole lot of beached sperm whales. As Gizmodo reported at the time, the whales entered the sea’s shallow waters, where their internal sonar-like systems stopped working, causing them to become stranded and die. But…
Scientists have uncovered the fossilized remains of an unusual species of dolphin that lived 30 million years ago in what is now South Carolina. These extinct aquatic mammals measured just three feet in length, they featured short snouts, and perhaps strangest of all, they had no teeth.
By now, you probably know that humans are really screwing up the ocean. Climate change aside, we often dump oil into it, ruining the lives of whatever animals live nearby. Just imagine if someone drilled for oil right in the center of your house and then accidentally got the toxic black sludge all over your bedroom,…
As you stare at your computer screen on a slow Monday morning, you’re probably wondering why your job doesn’t involve majestic dolphins and stunning background scenery. We don’t have any answers for you, but at least there’s a fullscreen option so you can temporarily forget all those emails you’re avoiding.
Boaters off the coast of Western Australia have spotted a bottlenose dolphin that appears to be wearing some kind of shirt. Wildlife officials suspect it was a deliberate act—one that could have caused the aquatic mammal to suffocate. Alarmingly, the dolphin hasn’t been since since.
Say hello to the “Echo Hunter,” a 27 million-year-old toothed whale that’s helping scientists understand how these ancient sea creatures evolved the ability to hear high-frequencies underwater, and then turn that ability into a killing technique.
BBC’s Attenborough’s Life That Glows is an absolutely gorgeous look at the mysterious creatures around the world that have bioluminescent powers. It details the lives of fireflies, glow worms, fungi, fish, squid, plankton, and other creatures, and shows how they use their glow-in-the-dark abilities.
A bunch of beachgoers in Argentina last week inadvertently killed an endangered baby dolphin when they scooped it out of the ocean and started taking pictures of it.
In a world’s first, researchers from the US and UK have created an impression of a submerged human as recorded by a dolphin’s echolocation.
To do it, a team led by Jack Kassewitz of SpeakDolphin.com used an imaging system known as a Cymascope. The system, developed by John Stuart Reid (who also assisted with the…
These dolphins are evidence of a complicated history. They have some of the characteristics of dolphins that made the jump to fresh water, and they show that that jump might not have happened in a single leap.
We always hear that dolphins are smart but how smart are they actually? Lori Marino explains for Ted-Ed in this cute animation and it’s almost stunning how intelligent they are. Their encephalization quotient (brain size to body size) is second only to us dumb humans and goes into detail how they can pass down…
A couple of months ago, I helped out in Patricia Brennan’s lab when she made casts of dolphin vaginas. You heard me correctly. Dolphin vaginas.
Most of us consider vision and hearing to be two separate senses. But dolphins use sound to see, emitting clicks, squawks and whistles to reveal hidden objects. This is called echolocation, and a new map of dolphin brain circuitry hints at how the animals do it.
While fishing off the coast of Cape Town in South Africa, a pair of fisherman were treated to an unbelievable sight — a massive pod of dolphins containing as many as a thousand individuals.
For the first time ever, scientists have observed a polar bear catching and eating white-beaked dolphins. It’s suspected that the dolphins ventured too far north and became stranded in the ice — a possible consequence of climate change.
