The Dolphin Pod (new feed)

We are proud to present The Dolphin Species Song File Download (03:40 min / 5.10 MB)

In this week's episode, we will review breaking Dolphin News from around the world, focus our Science Spotlight on dolphin communication, and in our Kids' Science Quickie, we'll discuss cookie cutter sharks File Download (28:41 min / 40.35 MB)

In this week's episode, we will review breaking Dolphin News from around the world, focus our Science Spotlight on dolphins and whales in the Middle Ages, and in our Kids' Science Quickie, we'll discuss magnetite File Download (27:03 min / 18.5 MB)

In this week's episode, we will review breaking Dolphin News from around the world, focus our Science Spotlight on Dolphin Sleep, and in our Kids' Science Quickie, we'll discuss how you can tell how old a dolphin is by looking at its teeth File Download (40:41 min / 27.9 MB)

In this week's episode, we will review breaking Dolphin News from around the world, focus our Science Spotlight Dolphin Assisted Therapy, and in our Kids' Science Quickie, we'll discuss pink dolphins File Download (42:04 min / 28.9 MB)

In this week's episode, we will discuss how you can help conserve dolphin species, review breaking Dolphin News from around the world, focus our Science Spotlight on the Amazon River dolphin, and in our Kids' Science Quickie, we'll discuss colorful dolphinss File Download (12:42 min / 8.73 MB)

In this week's episode, we will discuss whale and dolphin watching with biologist Fabian Ritter, review breaking Dolphin News from around the world, focus our Science Spotlight on dolphin buoyancy, and in our Kids' Science Quickie, we'll discuss hairy dolphins File Download (15:01 min / 10.3 MB)

In this week's episode, we will talk with Dr. Kathleen Dudzinski about the upcoming conference on marine mammalogy in Cape Town, review breaking Dolphin News from around the world, focus our Science Spotlight on a behavior known as Spy Hopping, and in our Kids' Science Quickie, we'll discuss surfing dolphins. File Download (14:30 min / 19.9 MB)

This is our first episode for the new and improved version of The Dolphin Pod. In this week’s episode, we will unveil the new dolphin pod format, review breaking Dolphin News from around the world, focus our Science Spotlight on the top 5 myths about dolphins, and in our new Kids’ Science Quickie, introduce you to a blind teenager who uses echolocation like a dolphin in order to navigate his surroundings.File Download (12:23 min / 8.7 MB)

Hello dolphin pod listeners. You may have noticed that episodes have not been released all that frequently in recent months. It's not because we here at the dolphin pod have lost interest – quite the contrary. We have been working on a brand new look and feel to the dolphin pod, together with an upgrade to our recording equipment. We are also hammering out plans for a new sponsorship scheme so that we can bring you improved dolphin science information and news on a more regular basis. So stay tuned as we roll out the new changes! If you have any ideas or suggestions for improvements to the podcast, please drop us a line at www.thedolphinpod.comFile Download (1:29 min / 1.4 MB)

Learn all about dolphin vocalizations and dolphin sounds in this week’s episode, featuring real audio recorded this summer from wild dolphins at our research field site at Mikura Island in Japan. Transcript :: Read a transcript of this episode DCP's 2007 Research :: Read about DCP's 2007 research from Mikura Island in Japan File Download (8:05 min / 7.4 MB)

You may recall from The Dolphin Pod episode titled “Herman's Dolphin Prodigies” that dolphins have proven themselves to be capable of understanding the human pointing gesture. Dr. Louis Herman and his research team have shown that dolphins, when given a pointing arm and finger gesture to indicate an object, understand that this gesture is a cue to the location of an object. This might sound like a very boring, elementary skill, but the ability to follow a pointing gesture is very rare in the animal kingdom. Even super smart animals like chimpanzees have a very hard time with pointing comprehension. Learn all about why dolphins understand pointing in this week’s episode. Transcript :: Read a transcript of this week's episode File Download (6:17 min / 5.8 MB)

Dolphins have been observed creating and playing with intricate bubble rings. Learn all about bubble ring play in dolphins in this week’s episode. Transcript :: Read a transcript of this episode Bubble Rings :: More about bubble rings Beluga Blows Bubble Ring :: Watch a beluga whale blow a bubble ring and then catch it More Beluga Bubble rings :: A beluga whale blows a spectacular bubble ring File Download (4:13 min / 3.9 MB)

In just a few days, the Dolphin Communication Project will begin our research on Mikura Island in Japan for our summer 2007 field season. The tiny, dormant volcanic island of Mikura lies 200 km south of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean. The island is home to 300 human beings and about 180 Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins. Learn more about our research on Mikura in this week’s episode. Transcript :: Read a transcript of this episode Field Reports :: Follow along with this year's summer field reports File Download (4:25 min / 4.1 MB)

Today is Earth Day 2007. According to the Earth Day Network Web site, the focus of this year's Earth Day is “A Call for Action on Climate Change”. Climate change is a topic that is in the news a lot lately, but one rarely finds a connection between climate change and dolphins. However, there is one species of cetacean that is on the front lines of this battle against climate change: the narwhal. You might remember from a previous episode of The Dolphin Pod that we discussed a hypothesis that the narwhal's tusk may function as a kind of barometer – sensitive to changes in the atmosphere. But, this time it's not the narwhal's tusk that is helping researchers learn more about climate change, it's the narwhals themselves. Scientists are using narwhals tagged with satellite transmitters and instruments that sample water temperatures to learn more about remote regions of the Atlantic Ocean. Narwhals have been recruited as oceanographers and climate change specialists. Transcript :: Read a transcript of this week's episode with web links Narwhals Aid Climate Change Study article :: Read an article from Discovery News on narwhal oceanographers File Download (4:34 min / 4.2 MB)

This week's episode of The Dolphin Pod is not actually about dolphins, but this little gem was simply too precious to ignore. Learn all about some very special poop-sniffing dogs that are helping researchers to learn more about endangered whales in this week’s episode. Transcript :: Read a transcript of this week's episode with web links The scent of a whale :: Read an article from the Boston Globe about whale-scat sniffing dogs Faecal sampling using detection dogs to study reproduction and health in North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) :: Read a scientific article about scat-sniffing dogs File Download (4:59 min / 4.6 MB)

Scientists think that dolphin's teeth aren't just for grabbing – a hypothesis that is gaining considerable support suggests that dolphin teeth might be used as an antenna. Not an antenna for picking up radio or television signals (dolphins probably aren't too bothered if they miss an episode or two of Survivor), but for detecting sonar signals. Learn more about the strange properties of dolphin teeth in this week’s episode. Transcript :: Read a transcript of this episode with web links Scientific article about dolphin 'antenna teeth' :: A recently published article going into great detail about the acoustic properties of dolphin teeth, and how they could potentially act as an antenna File Download (5:25 min / 5 MB)

In today's episode, we will shed light on the ancient history of the word ‘dolphin'. Transcript :: Read a transcript of this episode File Download (8:47 min / 8.1 MB)

This week’s episode reveals how dolphins manage to spend their entire lives in an aquatic environment (an almost zero gravity environment) without ever getting seasick or dizzy. It’s all thanks to some important evolutionary changes to their vestibular sense – one of the most important, and often overlooked, of the senses. Learn all about the vestibular sense in this week’s episode. Transcript of this episode :: Read a transcript of this week's episode with web links The vestibular sense :: A fantastic website with a detailed overview of the vestibular sense File Download (9:18 min / 8.5 MB)

If you are a regular listener to the Dolphin Pod, then you’ll be aware of the power and versatility of a dolphin’s echolocation system. If you are inclined to be jealous of the sensory systems of other animals, you could do worse than to envy dolphin biosonar. It is pretty cool stuff. At least, you can rest assured that humans outshine dolphins when it comes to vision, right? Not so fast my simian friend – while it is true that humans and other primates do have well-developed visual systems, our dolphin friends are not far behind. This episode will provide you with a detailed look at dolphins’ sense of vision by focusing (get it, focusing?) on the structure of the eyeball. It is a head-to-head battle between the human and the dolphin eyeball to see who will earn the title of ‘coolest eyeball ever’! Transcript of this episode :: Read a transcript of this episode with weblinks Eye anatomy :: Read more about the anatomy of the human eye File Download (0:00 min / 9.8 MB)