The visual system of the dolphin, particularly the bottle-nosed dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, has been observed extensively in the field from a behavioral aspect. However, from a physiological perspective, Pryor quoted one researcher as follows. “Compared to our knowledge of vision in terrestrial animals, our fundamental knowledge of the cetacean’s highly evolved and very different eye is ‘pathe...

Abstract: This paper focuses on a dolphin-like swimming hydrodynamics problem for a biomimetic amphibious robot capable of both fishand dolphin-like swimming modes. A Lagrangian reduction has been established in terms of rigid-body dynamics. For robust gait control, a central pattern generator-based approach is incorporated into the model serving as explicit joint angle control. Consequently, a...

The authors would like to acknowledge the logistic support of the staff and trainers at Dolphins Plus, Dolphin Cove, and Island Dolphin Care. We thank them for their time and dedication to dolphin research, and for their invaluable help in rating the dolphins in this study. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Stan A. Kuczaj, Department of Psychology, University of Sout...

The Shannon Estuary is home to Ireland’s only known resident population of bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and is designated as a candidate Special Area of Conservation (cSAC) for this species. Proper conservation management of these dolphins requires an understanding of the social structure of this population. Four years of photoidentification data (2005 to 2009, excluding 2007) were ...

Chronic inflammation has been associated with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes (T2D) in humans. Postmortem hepatic and splenic tissue from a 46-year-old geriatric male bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) with insulin resistance (chronic hyperinsulinemia with hyperglycemia), chronic inflammation (white blood cell count greater than 12,000 cells/μL), and mild fatty liver disease was eva...

‘dolphin-friendly’ tuna knows that dolphins can be unintended victims of the tuna-fishing industry. Now, a mathematical model shows that dolphin calves can gain up to 90% of the energy required for swimming if they position themselves correctly relative to their mothers, but that the calves are in danger of being lost if this positioning breaks down [1]. As observations of dolphins in the wild ...

The study of dolphin cognition involves intensive research of animal vocalizations recorded in the field. We address the automated analysis of audible dolphin communication and propose a system that automatically discovers patterns in dolphin signals. These patterns are invariant to frequency shifts and time warping transformations. The discovery algorithm is based on feature learning and unsup...

Aggregations by 3 species of dolphins (the bottlenose dolphin [Tursiops truncatus], the short-beaked common dolphin [Delphinus delphis], and the long-beaked common dolphin [Delphinus capensis]) and California sea lions (Zalophus californianus) were investigated in Santa Monica Bay, California. Groups were followed and observed during 201 boat-based surveys conducted in 1997–2001 documenting tha...

DNA clones have been isolated that span the complete mitochondrial (mt) genome of the dolphin. Cephalorhynchus commersonii. Hybridization experiments with purified primate mtDNA probes have established that there is close resemblance in the general organization of the dolphin mt genome and the terrestrial mammalian mt genomes. Sequences covering 2381 bp of the dolphin mt genome from the major n...

AND SUMMARY The tissue samples from two bottlenosed dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) became available, and it was decided to examine the fatty acid compositions of the phospholipid fractions. The food chain of the dolphin provides a vast preponderance of 603 series fatty acids compared to co6, while the land food chain provides a more even balance between the two series. The ancestors of the dolph...