This article was received by email from the Cetacean Freedom Network List on Wednesday 3rd January 2000. Ancient Greeks portrayed them in their art and built elaborate legends around them. Modern folks, like us, visit them in theme parks and performing dolphin shows, or simply stand on beaches and strain to see a dorsal fin gliding through the waves. Perhaps because they're like us, says Sarasota scientist Randall Wells.
Dolphins possess . .
For 30 years, Wells has studied resident dolphins in and around Sarasota Bay. His is the longest-running research on wild bottlenose dolphins in the world. His new book, which he co-authored with Eckerd College marine science professor John Reynolds and University of South Florida graduate student Samantha Eide, is a modern manifesto for Tursiops truncatus, the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin. The Bottlenose Dolphin, copiously annotated and boasting a 29-page bibliography, is classic science, an exhaustive look at dolphin anatomy, behavior and intelligence. If you're willing to wade through language that's often clinical and dry, you'll find fascinating details about dolphins and their habits.