#common bottlenose dolphin

[namu-the-orca]

“Faces from the Black Sea”

A series of drawings I started in 2018 and, of course, never continued. The idea was to practice my pencil work through several photo studies of Black Sea bottlenose dolphins. They have the most beautiful faces and markings, so a lovely subject for a study series like this. Alas, something or another came along and it never got further than these two drawings. Even though they’re older works I still very much like them! And I hope you will, too.

The original photograph references are here and here.

[fyeahyoshizakimine]

[inatungulates]

Common bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus

Observed by sirlarus, CC BY-NC

[ksksksrahrah]

[sandpaperoctopi]

saw some mammals

[unchartedspark]

🐬💋

[antiqueanimals]

Walt Disney's White Wilderness: Animals of the Arctic. By Robert Louvain and the Staff of the Walt Disney Studio. 1958.

Internet Archive

[shopcat]

some examples of pink in the animal kingdom. while there are no mammals with pink fur, it's naturally found in some birds, insects and fish. otherwise, usually due to genetic pigment mutations like albinism or leucism, some animals appear pink due their extreme paleness – their blood is visible through their skin!

[aurosoulart]

page 71 is here! Ava is..... not having a good time. Ava’s dolphin species (delphinus delphis) is accustomed to living in deep oceanic waters, and they do poorly in captivity - which is why you never see them in marine parks despite them being the most common dolphin in the world (hence their name - Common Dolphins!)

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[spearxwind]

I think it's sad that most people always think of bottlenoses as the "classic dolphin" since its the one that's always used for shows, and always think of dolphins as just straight grey when in reality there's so many varieties with so many different amazing patterns

Look at the common dolphin! They have a gorgeous X pattern and even some dull yellow/gold!!

Hourglass dolphins have gorgeous white streaks

Spinner dolphins have really pretty banding as well, AND they have a really sleek cute silhouette!

The atlantic spotted dolphin!!! Theyre spotted!!!!!!

and the pantropical spotted too!!

Dusky dolphins have a gorgeous airbrush look going on like straight out of a 2000s fantasy illustration

Striped dolphins sure have stripes!! How cool!!

And these I've shown you aren't even all of them at all, there are so many of them:

There's so so so many different types of dolphins people dont know about this isnt even all of them and some are SO gorgeous and underrated because people just dont know they exist so I'm here to fix that

[lightningspam]

Don’t worry, Blade (common dolphin sculpture) has a home on my work desk with my Patches the dolphin sculpture c:

[namu-the-orca]

Has there been a case of a hybrid between a bottlenose and an Atlantic spotted dolphin?

Perhaps! No one knows for sure. There has been no definitive proof from DNA samples of wild animals, nor has it ever been confirmed in captive animals. However, there is much reason to believe it is plausible, and one possible hybrid has been observed.

Let me take you to The Bahamas. Specifically, Great Bahama Bank and Little Bahama Bank. They're sprawling sandbanks surrounding the islands, and many Atlantic spotted dolphins as well as coastal Common bottlenose dolphins make their home there. The spotted dolphins have been studied for more than 30 years by Denise Herzing and her associates. While by far the most encounters are with single-species groups, there have been dozens of mixed species encounters as well.

Many of these are aggressively sexual in nature, with males of both species sparring and trying to enter each other. Male bottlenose dolphins often seem to dominate the smaller spotted dolphins during these encounters, though the spotted dolphins have been seen retaliating, and it is speculated they don't actually experience the harassment as very negative. Since much of the action is male-on-male or involves juvenile animals not yet sexually mature, it seems in many cases the nature of these encounters is more social than sexual. However, multiple cases of interspecific male-on-female copulation have been observed.

With so much going on, the potential for hybridism is great. And since the two species are morphologically quite similar (especially when young), a hybrid could easily fly under the radar.

In February of 2003, Herzing and her team observed a female spotted dolphin with an unusual looking calf. The calf had a shorter rostrum than is normal for spotted dolphins in the area, but it was longer and more elegant than that of a Bahamian bottlenose. Herzing assumed it could be a hybrid calf. However, since no DNA testing was done and the calf was only observed for two days, this can't be confirmed. In 1989 and 1996 there have also been observations of female spotted dolphins mothering over bottlenose dolphin calves. In one case the calf was emaciated, and the spotted dolphin swimming with it wasn't lactating, so most likely the calf died. In another case it was only a temporary association and the bottlenose calf returned to their real mother after a while.

So a lot of interesting things going on. The studies are still ongoing. To my knowledge no large scale DNA testing has been done, nor any new "suspect" animals observed. Perhaps in the future a hybrid will be confirmed! Or perhaps it turns out this is one of those mixes that just doesn't work.

I highly recommend you read the study the photo comes from: "Interspecies interactions between Atlantic spotted dolphins, Stenella frontalis and bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, on Great Bahama Bank, Bahamas". And many of the other studies done by Denise Herzing's team can be read for free here: https://www.wilddolphinproject.org/media/scientific-publications/

[orcinus-veterinarius]

Can you elaborate the story of the ”Free Willy” orca (forgot his name). From my understanding the orca couldn’t survive in the wild and imprinted on hunans to the point that he seeked out human compaionship

Oh Keiko. His is a sad story. In 1979, he was tragically captured from his native Icelandic waters as a calf and, after bouncing around for several years, was sold to an amusement park in Mexico City that would eventually become Six Flags Mexico. It was here that he found fame as the star of Free Willy, a very sweet and very fictional story (a favorite of mine as a child!) that later spawned a trilogy, all while convincing the public that it’s easy to free a whale.

The tank you see in the movie is the same tank Keiko lived in during his time in Mexico. Intended to house dolphins, it was incredibly undersized, and the water was far too warm for an orca. Worst of all, he was isolated from others of his kind, with only the companionship of his human caregivers and a few bottlenose dolphins. The years of poor husbandry took their toll on poor Keiko, and he was lethargic and in ill health when his story because known throughout the world.

Although many parties were involved in what happened next, Warner Bros. studios (the filmmakers behind Free Willy) and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS, my beloathed) were at the forefront. Once it became public knowledge that the real Willy was not, in fact, returned to the wild to live with his family and was still living in that too-tiny pool, many of Keiko’s fans (mainly children) began writing letters asking for their favorite cetacean movie star to be released.

Doesn’t that warm your heart? *she says sarcastically*

Some time—and an incident in which Michael Jackson (yes, that Michael Jackson) tried to purchase the whale for his personal collection—later, Keiko’s owners relented. It was decided by the newly formed Free Willy-Keiko Foundation, founded by Warner Bros. and cell phone mogul Craig McCaw (and still in operation to this day, unfortunately), that it was time to make fantasy a reality and set Keiko free. In 1996, Keiko was transferred to the Oregon Coast Aquarium for rehabilitation, where he would spend two years.

Under the quality husbandry and veterinary care Keiko received in Oregon, his health began to improve. In my opinion, this beautiful habitat, with trainers who loved and cared for him, should’ve been his forever home. One would think this was the plan all along, considering his trainers were still doing waterwork with him. That doesn’t exactly scream “this animal is a candidate for release!”

But the HSUS and Free Willy-Keiko Foundation had promised the children of the world that Keiko would return to the wild. Think of the children, people.

In 1998, Keiko tasted the crisp saltwater of the Icelandic seas for the first time in nearly two decades. For the next four or so years, Keiko lived in a sea pen, with the intentions of gradually habituating him back to his native environment. Over time, his trainers took him on longer and longer “walks” in the open ocean. One day in 2002, the walk didn’t end.

Keiko was free.

15 months later, he was dead.

The cause of death was pneumonia, the most common disease of cetaceans both in the wild and in human care. He was 27 years old (average life expectancy of a male orca is about 30 years).

Perhaps it would’ve been worth it, had Keiko spent those last 15 months with his long-lost family. But he didn’t. Though he was occasionally observed trailing pods of orcas, Keiko never rejoined a wild pod. Instead, he spent those 15 months traveling the coasts of Iceland and Norway seeking out the only family he knew. Humans.

Keiko would approach swimming children, allowing them to ride on his back as he had with his trainers over the years. He would follow boats in search of food and companionship, as his caregivers had interacted with him from boats during his ocean walks. These escapades became so frequent that the local government passed ordinances to stop its citizens from interacting with the whale. Although the HSUS claimed otherwise, Keiko was never again a truly wild whale. He was a whale dependent on humans, humans who ignored the advice of experts and tried to bring fiction to life. In 2009, the journal Marine Mammal Science did a retrospective review of Keiko’s rehabilitation and release. They determined it was a failure.

Despite this, Keiko remains a poster child for anti-zoo activists. The still-hypothetical Whale Sanctuary Project (my even more beloathed) uses Keiko as an example of why their experiment is a good idea, tugging at heartstrings of well-meaning animal lovers like HSUS did all those years ago.

In reality, Keiko was quite possibly the worst candidate imaginable for release. He was a fully mature male, with a history of poor health, who had spent decades in the care of humans with absolutely no contact with others of his kind since he was basically a toddler. The decision to release him was made entirely on emotion and carried out by movie executives and animal rights activists. For further insight into the political and financial woes of the release, I highly recommend Killing Keiko by Mark Simmons, one of Keiko’s caregivers throughout the rehabilitation process.

RIP Keiko. You were a beautiful, sweet man who inspired millions 🐳

[inatungulates]

Common bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus

Observed by charlottekirchner, CC BY

[ksksksrahrah]

[tanadrin]

I have tried to choose a wide distribution of animals representing many different clades, aiming for relatively intelligent species within their respective clade. There are only 12 poll options possible, so no asking “what about X?” Inevitably some species will have to stand in for a much broader class than others, e.g., the Humboldt squid for all cephalopods. (But the Humboldt squid is probably a good choice: they’re fairly gregarious and cooperative, unlike the octopus.)

Uplifted species will have the capacity for language, abstract thought, tool use, episodic memory, planning, and self-awareness. Their cognition may in other respects be radically different from our own, especially if they are not mammals.