The Wild Side

---

Once we saw them as gods

these soaring spirits of the sea.

How else to explain their

boundless grace and energy,

the way they inspire our joy.

Today, dolphins seem

like part of the family.

They enchant us with their

willingness to please and perform.

But the dolphin's true home - the sea

is an alien world and here

a different side emerges.

Cunning, powerful and relentless,

dolphins are consummate predators.

They are social creatures that

communicate and cooperate

for danger can strike from anywhere.

The quest for prey, the quest for mates,

nothing comes easy out here.

For the ocean is as unforgiving

as it is boundless.

Join us as we explore the world

of dolphins in the wild.

In the salt marshes of South

Carolina is a rich ocean estuary

a nursery for fish and shellfish

and a lure for all kinds

of predators.

Every day as

the tide ebbs,

the broad mud banks

become exposed.

It is then an extraordinary

event occurs.

Seabirds vie for

a front row position.

They have an intense

interest in what is to come.

The predators regroup

for another coordinated attack.

These are bottlenose dolphins

among the most inventive

and intelligent

hunters in the sea.

Here they locate schools of

small fish in the turbid channels.

Then in a stunning maneuver,

they rush up the mudflats

creating a bow wave

that drives the fish ashore.

Using their excellent

above-water vision,

they snatch up the fish

stranded on the banks.

How dolphins locate

the schools of fish

and coordinate their

attack is not entirely known

They may use either audible

or visual signals

For some reason

the dolphins always rush up

the banks on their right side

Over time

the teeth on that side will

actually be worn down from

chewing as much mud as fish

Occasionally

they will work themselves

completely out of the water

Being stranded up

here could be fatal

As they shimmy up the mud

banks it's almost as

if they're evolving into

the land creatures they once were

Some fifty million years ago

the ancestors

of these air-breathing

mammals ventured

into the seas

To follow dolphins

in the wild is to discover

one of the most remarkable

adaptations in the natural world

They use their intelligence

to survive

changing or inventing strategies

to suit their environment

Spinner dolphins leap in what

appears to a display of exuberance

In fact,

they may be signaling

others to join them,

or coordinating

movements of the pod...

A kind of long

distance communication.

At close range,

dolphins "speak" through

clicks and whistles.

These signals can

mean anything from

"Food's over here" to "Watch out!

There's danger!"

They also communicate

through touching.

Dolphins are notoriously affectionate

and extremely sensuous.

When dolphins mate,

they swim in rhythm

with the female on top.

Sex is as frequent

as it is casual.

It's not always

for reproduction

Often it's a social tool

used to strengthen

and maintain bonds

Whether old or young

male or female - all dolphins

engage in caressing and petting

But beneath this veneer

of harmony

lies a darker side...

marked by conflict and violence

Surprisingly the

beloved bottlenose we know

as "Flipper" may be the

most aggressive dolphin species

In the Bahamas

two male bottlenose harass

a male spotted dolphin

At first the interaction

seems harmless enough

but it quickly escalates

The bottlenose take

turns assaulting

the spotted perhaps

to assert their dominance

Next they turn on a spotted

dolphin half their size

It's only a calf

Bottlenose are among the

very few wild creatures

that will kill for reasons

other than hunger

Swimming in formation

a group of adult spotteds

rush in to intercede

In the flurry of threats

the calf escapes

to the surface

Bottlenose are even

more prone to clashing

with members

of their own species

These males in the

Bahamas bear many scars

including those

from fierce battles

A first sign of impending

trouble is "jaw clapping"

a clear audible threat

When fights break out

they're marked

by head ramming

biting

and blows from

powerful flukes

Many dolphins have

evolved their own

sometimes brutal

aspects of society

Shark Bay

in Western Australia

where vast sea

grass beds support

a large community

of bottlenose dolphins

Here an international

team of scientists

investigates

dolphin aggression

The waters of Shark

Bay are in the throes

of what appears

to be a gang fight

Groups of males are observed

chasing down other males

It can go on for hours

and cover miles of territory

The battles are over females

part of an extremely complex social

system only now being unraveled

by Dr. Richard Connor from the

University of Massachusetts

He's spent his professional life

studying dolphins in the wild

And his work has changed

our image of the dolphin

I think in the 1960's

the myth was generated

that dolphins were

all sweetness and light

And almost incapable

of aggression

At least that was

the public perception

carried on a large

part until today

Dolphins are capable of

a lot of aggression

They can be quite nasty

depending on the circumstance

They are complex

intelligent social mammals

and that carries

with it a range of behaviors from

the nice to the not so nice

Just like in our own species

And like our own species

dolphins are

highly individualistic

To study their relationships

Connor needs to clearly

recognize individuals

He does this by their

unique fin markings

He's studied them in

Shark Bay since 1982

and he knows over

three hundred dolphins by name

and Minnie right there

between them.

And here comes Bad Ghost

and Poltergeist.

There's Wow resting at the surface.

There's Myrtle, there's Hobo.

Xxx and Horton?

Beautiful, look at that! All together.

Connor is

especially intrigued

by relationships

between the males

To him, it's like cracking

the code of a secret society

They follow a

mature male with

a jagged dorsal fin

named "Bottom Hook"

He's usually observed swimming

with another male called "Pointer"

They're almost inseparable forming

what Connor calls an alliance

Some of these alliances last

for a dozen years or more

Today a female is seen

swimming between them

as if she's being herded

In fact, she is

their captive

They guard her night and day

Very rarely do you see the female

off to the side from the males

They like to keep her

between them

That basically eliminates

avenues of escape for her

We've seen them keep females

for over a month at a time

Bottomhook and Pointer

are vigilant

Their strategy is to keep her

from mating with other males

To limit the female's

choice to themselves

We've often seen

the males use a lot of

aggression to keep

the female with them.

Even so, it's likely that the

female wants to mate

with these males as well as

other males in the bay

The males are trying

to sequester

the female simply

to increase the chance

that they will be

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes