Dolphin Mysteries is a wonderful and very welcome book about a “poster child” of sentient beings. But it’s really many books in one. Its scope is truly enormous, and Kathleen Dudzinski and Toni Frohoff are to be congratulated for getting so much important and timely information between two reasonably spaced covers. What sets this book apart from many others that deal with dolphins and their relatives is that not only is it written by two experts—two passionate women who have devoted much of their waking (and perhaps their dream) lives to dolphins—but it presents a diverse array of information that surely will be educational to a broad audience, academic and lay people alike. Dolphin Mysteries will appeal to anyone who wants to know more about these amazing animals and will inspire those who want to improve the lives of captive dolphins and their more fortunate relatives who live free, or almost free, of human intrusions. It is scientifically rigorous, is easy to read, and has plenty of heart. What a wonderful combination.
As I read this book, I often thought of Thomas Berry’s claim that a group of individuals really is a communion of subjects, not merely a collection of objects. This surely is true for dolphins and many other animals who must be able to live in harmony with other sentient beings, including those who persecute them. Kathleen and Toni show clearly that dolphins are amazing individuals. Most descriptions of dolphins and other cetaceans portray them as highly intelligent, sentient animals with remarkable social and cognitive skills. They’re highly emotional, playful, seem to empathize with one another, have a sense of self, and mourn the death of other dolphins. We now know that individuals of many species use tools, have culture, are conscious and have a sense of self, can reason, can draw, can self-medicate, and show very complex patterns of communication that rival what we call “language.”
As you read this fine book and learn more about the world of dolphin communication and cognition, you’ll see that dolphins are more remarkable and mysterious than you could have imagined. By going beneath the surface, experts Kathleen and Toni open up doors of perception and give us a glimpse into the world of dolphins from both beneath the water’s surface and behind the dolphin’s smile. In the spirit of classical ethologists such as Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen they ask, “What is it like to be a dolphin?” and provide up-to-date information about numerous aspects of dolphin natural history, behavior, behavioral ecology, sensory ecology, intelligence, conservation, and anatomy and physiology.
A few years ago I published an essay in a book titled Intimate Nature that was coedited by Toni and Brenda Peterson. My essay was called “Troubling Tursiops,” an obvious play on the genus of bottle-nosed dolphins, Tursiops truncatus. The title has two meanings. The first twist on the word “troubling” concerns how humans trouble Tursiops, how we intrude into their worlds, how we bother them intentionally and unintentionally. The second twist on this word concerns the troubling and complex issues that arise when we ponder what sort of intrusions, if any, are permissible. I began my essay by describing how I was once standing in line at a grocery store and overheard a girl tell her friend that she’d just gone swimming with dolphins when on holiday in Hawaii. She had a great time, but there was a slight pause when her friend asked her about what the dolphins might have felt about all of this. She asked, did they enjoy her touching them or riding on their back? Did they really like being bothered? I was pleased to see questions about ethics being raised by a youngster.
As a scientist, I believe that it is in the best traditions of science to ask questions about ethics. It’s not antiscience to question what we do when we study other animals. Ethics can enrich our views of other animals in their own worlds and in our different worlds, and it can help us to see that variations among animals are worthy of respect, admiration, and appreciation. The study of ethics can also broaden the range of possible ways in which we interact with other animals without compromising their lives. Ethical discussion can help us to see alternatives to past actions that have disrespected other animals and, in the end, have served neither us nor other animals well. In this way, the study of ethics is enriching to other animals and to ourselves in that we may come to consider new possibilities for how we interact with beings with whom we share our planet. If we think ethical considerations are stifling and create unnecessary hurdles over which we must blindly jump in order to get done what we want to get done, then we’ll lose rich opportunities to learn more about other animals as well as ourselves.
Cetaceans are closely linked to the wholeness of many ecosystems, and how they fare is tightly associated with how communities and ecosystems fare. Dolphins are also closely linked to our own spirituality. By paying close attention to what we do to them and why we do what we do where and when we do it, we can help maintain the health of individuals, species, populations, ecosystems—and ourselves. There’s no substitute for respecting animals, treating them with heartfelt compassion, and loving them for who they are in this magnificent and awe-inspiring world. Could anyone reasonably argue that a world with less cruelty and destruction and more compassion and love wouldn’t be a better place in which to live and to raise children? I don’t think so.
Public education is critical. So, we need to be sure that our knowledge about other species gets out to a broad audience. We really need books like Kathleen and Toni’s to give people the information they need to be knowledgeable and proactive advocates for making the life of dolphins better worldwide. To disseminate information about what is called the “human dimension,” administrators of zoos, wild-life theme parks, aquariums, and areas where animals roam freely need to inform visitors of how their behavior influences the behavior of the animals they want to see. Tourism companies, nature clubs and societies, and schools can do the same. By treading lightly, we humans can enjoy the company of other animals without making them pay for our interest in their fascinating lives.
It’s truly a privilege to study animals and to share their worlds and lives with them. As we learn more about how we influence other animals we will be able to adopt proactive, rather than reactive, strategies. Part of learning entails changing our practices and asking, “Would we do what we did again?” and “Have we learned something that can make other animals’ lives better?”
Our curiosity about other animals need not harm them. We can live in peace with other animals and easily learn about who they are in their and our worlds. Our old brains crave harmonious and peaceful connections with other nature, and such encounters are good for all of us. When animals lose, we all lose. When we have friendly interactions with other animals, everyone wins, and with hard work we can work together to make the world more compassionate and peaceful, a point I stress in my book The Emotional Lives of Animals. It’s pretty amazing what a group of right-minded people can do.
Many thanks to Kathleen and Toni for taking the time out of their busy family and professional lives to write a book for all of us: one that will undoubtedly make a difference in how dolphins—and, let’s hope, other animals—are perceived. Even when we think we’re doing the best we can, I like to say that isn’t enough—that “good welfare” isn’t “good enough.” We can always do better, and we can always do more in our interactions with animals. That’s my guiding light, my bumper sticker. And now, at last, there is a book that also serves as my guide. I hope it will guide and inspire numerous people worldwide.
Marc Bekoff, Ph.D.
Fellow of the Animal Behavior Society
Boulder, Colorado