Bottlenose Dolphin Images

Country diary: North Kessock

There are various iconic images in the Highlands such as the golden eagle, salmon and red deer stags. While these may be elusive there is another that is more readily seen – the bottlenose dolphins of the Moray Firth. These dolphins are the only resident population in the north of Britain and can be seen in various ways. One is to find a vantage point such as Chanonry Point on the Black Isle, a popular place since the publicity on the BBC's Springwatch and Autumnwatch TV programmes. Another way is take one of the many boat trips out from such places as Inverness, Avoch and Cromarty.

Last week I chose perhaps an even easier way and visited the dolphin and seal centre at North Kessock, based on the north shore of the Beauly Firth. There is one advantage in this centre in that if you do not actually see any dolphins you can watch a video of them taken at Chanonry Point, or listen to their strange noises via hydrophones. The centre is dominated by its panorama window that overlooks the firth: it provides binoculars to watch the seals and dolphins in the sea below. The noticeboard outside, regularly updated by the attendant, informed me that earlier that day two dolphins had been seen from the centre.

Fascinatingly, many of the dolphins have been given names as they can be individually identified by characteristics, especially the shape and colour of their fins. This recognition, backed by photographs, is an invaluable aid to the close studies of this population. The video of the Chanonry Point dolphins was mesmerising as they frolicked and leapt out of the water. On the other side of the firth from the centre the underwater hydrophone is situated in the area they feed and pass through the most, and the sound of their clicking and whistling seems to sum up their enigmatic life in the firths.

Surfbirds News: Please Don't Swim With Dolphins

« Brussels budget cuts threaten to silence Scottish countryside | Main

Some readers may have seen the recent coverage in the national UK press regarding some interesting pictures taken by photographer Terry Whittaker (Flipping incredible: Photographers five-year tour of the British coast to capture amazing images dolphins at play): "I write in response to the article in today’s Express entitled ‘Flippin Fantastic’ which makes reference to the work of wildlife photographer, Terry Whittaker. Whilst Terry’s work is rightly applauded and so too should be the exposure given to the presence of dolphins around the coast of the UK, it should also be pointed out that the images used and inference in the article, that getting in the water and playing with these animals is fun, is not one that should be promoted. Bottlenose Dolphin © Mark Priest, from the surfbirds galleries.

Dolphins are very powerful marine-adapted, highly intelligent social mammals. Bottlenose dolphins typically behave in a very robust manner towards each other, and head butting, scraping with teeth, tail slapping etc. are all common. Normally, they do no serious harm to each other, but this species can grow to 4 metres plus in the UK and they have a layer of fat ‘padding’ most of their bodies which would protect them from such social robustness. People, of course are a far smaller species and far less robust or adapted to life in the sea. Readers should also be aware that dolphins can be traumatised by swimming with people. There appears to be a general pattern in solitary dolphin behaviour where they start by being reticent to interact with humans and then over some time, as more and more people are persistently trying to interact with them, the dolphin then goes through a number of stages until it is fully ‘habituated’ to human contact (this is not the same thing as being ‘tamed’ or ‘trained’ to interact with people). This is not something that should be encouraged as happened with ‘Dave’ the dolphin some years ago.

Habituation relates to them gradually losing their natural fear of people, developing an increasing enthusiasm to ‘play’ with people as they grow more confident and ‘controlling’ in their interactions over time. Based on my knowledge of how solitary dolphin behaviour is likely to progress and observations from a six week study of ‘Dave’ in Kent in 2007 (as published in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science in 2010), my advice is that people should not enter the water with dolphins, solitary or not, and that boats should not approach them. The rationale for this is two-fold, firstly because solitary dolphins will become increasingly habituated to human contact and this could generate an increasingly dangerous situation relating to people entering the water as swimmers or in small vessels to play or otherwise interact with these wild animals, as the dolphin’s behaviour changes. Secondly, solitary dolphins interacting with people spend less time doing normal “dolphin things” like hunting, feeding or resting which, in the long-term, will affect their fitness, and therefore their survival.

Bottlenose Dolphins

Oceans 2002 MTS/IEEE, marine frontiers, reflections of the past, visions of the future: conference proceedings : conference & exposition, October 29-31, 2002, Mississippi Coast Coliseum and Convention Center, Biloxi, Mississippi

In defense of dolphins, the new moral frontier

Oceans 2003, celebrating the past-- teaming toward the future : September 22-26, 2003, San Diego, California, Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center

Cetacean societies, field studies of dolphins and whales