The Dolphin Pod

In just a few days, the Dolphin Communication Project will begin our research on Mikura Island in Japan for our summer 2007 field season. The tiny, dormant volcanic island of Mikura lies 200 km south of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean. The island is home to 300 human beings and about 180 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins. Learn more about our research on Mikura in this week’s episode.

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Today is Earth Day 2007. According to the Earth Day Network Web site, the focus of this year's Earth Day is “A Call for Action on Climate Change”. Climate change is a topic that is in the news a lot lately, but one rarely finds a connection between climate change and dolphins. However, there is one species of cetacean that is on the front lines of this battle against climate change: the narwhal. You might remember from a previous episode of The Dolphin Pod that we discussed a hypothesis that the narwhal's tusk may function as a kind of barometer – sensitive to changes in the atmosphere. But, this time it's not the narwhal's tusk that is helping researchers learn more about climate change, it's the narwhals themselves. Scientists are using narwhals tagged with satellite transmitters and instruments that sample water temperatures to learn more about remote regions of the Atlantic Ocean. Narwhals have been recruited as oceanographers and climate change specialists.

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This week's episode of The Dolphin Pod is not actually about dolphins, but this little gem was simply too precious to ignore. Learn all about some very special poop-sniffing dogs that are helping researchers to learn more about endangered whales in this week’s episode.

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Scientists think that dolphin's teeth aren't just for grabbing – a hypothesis that is gaining considerable support suggests that dolphin teeth might be used as an antenna. Not an antenna for picking up radio or television signals (dolphins probably aren't too bothered if they miss an episode or two of Survivor), but for detecting sonar signals. Learn more about the strange properties of dolphin teeth in this week’s episode.

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In today's episode, we will shed light on the ancient history of the word ‘dolphin'.

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This week’s episode reveals how dolphins manage to spend their entire lives in an aquatic environment (an almost zero gravity environment) without ever getting seasick or dizzy. It’s all thanks to some important evolutionary changes to their vestibular sense – one of the most important, and often overlooked, of the senses. Learn all about the vestibular sense in this week’s episode.

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If you are a regular listener to the Dolphin Pod, then you’ll be aware of the power and versatility of a dolphin’s echolocation system. If you are inclined to be jealous of the sensory systems of other animals, you could do worse than to envy dolphin biosonar. It is pretty cool stuff. At least, you can rest assured that humans outshine dolphins when it comes to vision, right? Not so fast my simian friend – while it is true that humans and other primates do have well-developed visual systems, our dolphin friends are not far behind. This episode will provide you with a detailed look at dolphins’ sense of vision by focusing (get it, focusing?) on the structure of the eyeball. It is a head-to-head battle between the human and the dolphin eyeball to see who will earn the title of ‘coolest eyeball ever’!

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This week's episode features a personal essay about my experiences of swimming with Fungie – the famous solitary dolphin who has been living near the town of Dingle on the west coast of Ireland. Stay tuned for future episodes about lone, sociable dolphins and the whale and dolphin watching industry featured this month on The Dolphin Pod.

This week’s episode features music from the Irish traditional group Cran.

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The narwhal is perhaps one of the most easily recognizable of all cetaceans thanks to their distinctive long tusks. Learn more about the narwhal’s tusks and what it is used for in this week’s episode.

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2007 is a year with major significance for dolphin enthusiasts as it has been officially declared the Year of the Dolphin! You might have heard about this in the news. But what on earth is the Year of the Dolphin all about, and who has the authority to declare such things? Learn all about the Year of the Dolphin in this week’s podcast.

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