Customer Reviews

The Bottlenose Dolphin: Biology and Conservation

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I have read through this book while doing some research on dolphins and marine mammal conservation and must say that this has some information that I could find nowhere else. This book hits on such a large variety of information relating to dolphin biology and conservation that I cannot believe that they fit it all into one book.

I purchased this book hoping to get a consolidated overview of the characteristics of bottlenose dolphins, and that's exactly what I got! I appreciated the concise descriptions of the dolphin's physical and behavioral adaptations that lead to a better understanding of the animal overall. I would recommend this book to anyone with a genuine interest in dolphins, conservation of the species, or anyone in the position of caring for this animals as a good resource to keep in their library.

The collaborators who put this book together are dedicated scientists with years of experience in the field. I admire their work. But I find on thing missing from the discussion of brain versus body size. They establish ratios of brain to body size and declare this is one method of measuring the intelligence of the animal, i.e. the larger the brain is in relationship to the body, the smarter the animal is. But they do not explain why a large body needs a large brain. After all, whale sharks of the same size as sperm whales have brains smaller than your fist while the sperm whale brain is six times larger than the human brain. Perhaps it is the large brain which requires the large body. The laws of physics would prohibit a brain developing in a very small body. Necks breaking and cortical sheering would be a problem.

She is very smart.

Good to see Samantha successful in life. I knew her back when she was a struggling student at Eckerd College.