31.09.2024 – Family Ties

I’ve had a small contingent of my family visiting from England over the last few days. Today they joined me on the 09:30 tour to watch Atlantic spotted (Stenella frontalis) and Bottlenose (Tursiops truncatus) dolphins. This got me thinking about how similar and how different dolphin families are to ours. A big difference comes in numbers; while my close-knit family unit is only 12 (with 4 visiting me currently), dolphins live in pods of up to 100 animals. These large groups are split into smaller “subgroups” of individuals who prefer to associate together. As this preference in association is variable (individuals may change who they like to be friends with depending on variables such as their maturity or resource availability), it is known as a Fission and Fusion Society. I believe there are definite parallels here to my human family, for example. My brother and I would not associate when the number of snacks in my parents house got too low but would always come back together again whenever it was time for a meal at one of our grandmas; resource availability! Similarly, as young adults, we would both not associate with my father when he was drinking whisky or enjoying cheese that was too strong with maturity; however, weve both come to appreciate these things, and now they make up a large part of our shared experience. Finally, one of the main points that’s given as a similarity between dolphins and human society is the use of names. Ill be honest, though, when compared to my family, this doesn’t work as dolphins only have one set of clicks per individual, whereas my mother uses every nickname for our family members…every one except their given name.

by Peter Worth

Sightings of the Day

Ribeira Brava

09:30 Atlantic spotted dolphins

Stenella

09:30 Bottlenose Dolphins, Atlantic Spotted Dolphins,

14:00 Bottlenose Dolphins, Atlantic Spotted Dolphins,

17:00 Bottlenose Dolphins, Atlantic Spotted Dolphins, Trigger Fish