For more than 30 years, Denise Herzing has observed Atlantic spotted dolphins in their natural habitat, the waters near the Bahamas. She is interested in developing new ways for human to communicate with wild dolphins.
WHAT GOT YOU INTERESTED IN STUDYING MARINE ZOOLOGY AND BEHAVIORAL BIOLOGY?
I had a tendency to wonder about the natural world, and I wanted to be out in nature and doing science. I was intrigued by the ocean. [Undersea explorer] Jacques Cousteau appeared on TV, and Jane Good all was tromping around with chimps, and I just thought that would be a very lovely way to spend your life. When I started the Wild Dolphin Project, I really wanted to spend at least 20 years out in the wild observing a wild dolphin society and trying to understand their communication system— and tell the story of how they live in the wild.
When [dolphins are] comfortable with you, and they just let you observe what they’re doing, that’s amazing. It’s kind of like a peek into a culture if you were an anthropologist and you saw some strange human rituals. You might not understand what they’re doing, but letting you into their culture is a privilege, really. It’s our job to try to interpret.
WHAT MAKES DOLPHINS PARTICULARLY INTERESTING ANIMALS TO STUDY?
Dolphins are kind of the primates of the ocean. They’re social, they’re smart, and they have complex relationships and societies. But they’re also alien because of the habitat they live in, so we don’t really recognize their body signals the way we do with our own. So they’re intriguing just from that sense of how does a species evolve in a different environment and still communicate and use its intelligence.
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT DOLPHINS’ INTELLIGENCE?
Esta historia es de la edición April 2017 de Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
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Esta historia es de la edición April 2017 de Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
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Who's Your Cousin?
The great apes are among the most popular animals in most zoos. Their actions, facial expressions, and family life remind us so much of ourselves. Have you ever wondered, though, how we might look to them?
Is it possible to die of boredom?
To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
THE PROBLEM WITH PALM OIL
Palm oil is all around you. It’s in sugary snacks like cookies and candy bars. It’s in lipstick and shampoo and pet food.
SERGE WICH
Serge Wich’s favorite days at work are spent out in the forest, studying orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo or chimpanzees in Tanzania.
ELODIE FREYMANN
When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark.
Guardians of the Forest
EARLY, MAKESHIFT WILDLIFE DRONES HELPED TO DETECT AND PROTECT ORANGUTANS.
APE ANTICS
The Whirling World of primate play
Dr. Ape Will See You Now
HUMANS AREN’T THE ONLY PRIMATES THAT USE MEDICATION.
THE LEFT OVERS
A lot has happened for modern humans to get to this point. We lost most of our hair, learned how to make tools, established civilizations, sent a person to the Moon, and invented artificial intelligence. Whew! With all of these changes, our bodies have changed, too. It’s only taken us about six million years.
SO, WHAT IS A PRIMATE?
What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on.
