The Wild Side Page #4

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these bonds are essential

The duskys are about

to face a challenge

that calls for teamwork

on monumental scale

Sixty feet below the

surface, a monstrous swirl

of life undulates like a

strange super organism

It's a mass of anchovies over

a hundred feet in diameter

For these duskys

it's the mother lode

Circling the fish

with violent splashes

the duskys corral

them closer together

A team of dolphins

works below the school

herding it towards

the surface

They must keep the

enormous mass together

If it splits into

smaller schools

they'll be hard to control

Finally, they succeed

in herding the

great ball of fish to

the surface

It serves as a wall,

closing off one avenue of escape

Now sea lions are drawn

to the scene

The dolphins struggle to

keep the school together

but the sea lions are

not team players

They plunge into the

mass of fish to feed

The school is simply too large

for the dolphins to control

Now the leaps serve

a different purpose

High and acrobatic

they're calls for help

From miles away,

other duskys rush to the feeding site

They porpoise high in the air to

keep sight of the action ahead

By the time they

reach the school

there's a feeding

frenzy going on

Chaos reigns and the ball

is in danger of splitting apart

The new arrivals

get right to work

and quickly coordinate their

efforts with the other duskys

Now there are enough dolphins

to guard

the perimeter while

they take turns feeding

Finally all the dolphins'

hard work pays off

The fish have been

packed together

so long they've consumed

too much oxygen

There's little chance the

ball will split apart

For the dolphins who can now

feed at will this hunt is over

To ancient mariners

the dolphins' mastery of

the ocean world seemed magical

They were cast as heroes

in myth and legend

Today we look for glimpses

of ourselves in dolphins

And we find them

in their conflicts

yes - but also in the ways

they communicate and cooperate

their sheer inventiveness.

But there's no need

to romanticize or humanize

dolphins to respect

them for what they are

Strong and intelligent hunters

in a wilderness called the sea

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