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Summarizes our state of knowledge of a little dolphin - the southern hemisphere 'dusky', and compares its behavioral strategies in different environs. This book documents the research, from their feeding patterns to their acrobatic skills. It is full of scientific facts, with a sense of poetry and wonder of the unknown.
List of contents
Chapter 1: The Dusky Dolphins' Place in the Delphinid Family Tree
Chapter 2: Dusky Dolphin Life History and Demography
Chapter 3: Dusky Dolphin Trophic Ecology: Their Role in the Food Web
Chapter 4: Acoustics of Dusky Dolphins
Chapter 5: Dusky Dolphins Foraging at Night
Chapter 6: Dusky Dolphins Foraging in Daylight
Chapter 7: Predator Threats and Dusky Dolphin Survival Strategies
Chapter 8: Mating Habits of New Zealand Dusky Dolphins
Chapter 9: Dusky Dolphin Calf Rearing
Chapter 10: Dusky Dolphin Sexual Segregation and Genetic Relatedness in New Zealand
Chapter 11: Human Interactions with Dusky Dolphins: Harvest, Fisheries, Habitat Alteration, and Tourism
Chapter 12: Human Interactions, A Management Perspective with Focus on Dusky Dolphins
Chapter 13: Dolphin Swimming and Watching: One Tourism Operator's perspective
Dennis Buurman
Chapter 14: Neglected but not Forgotten: Southern Africa's Dusky Dolphin
Chapter 15: Patterns of Sympatry in Lagenorhynchus and Cephalorhynchus: Dolphins in Different Habitats
Chapter 16: A Large-Brained Social Mammal
Chapter 17: Social Creatures in a Changing Sea: Concluding Remarks
Report
"... this beautifully illustrated book, with many color photos (e.g., p. 247) and close to a thousand combined references at the end for easy look-up, is the very best to date describing our current state of knowledge on the dusky dolphin-and in doing so shedding light on the life of any other delphinid, too, for that matter. The Dusky Dolphin, simply put, is one of those classics which should not be missing from the shelves of anyone in the marine mammal field." --Michiel Schotten, Department of Marine Biology, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
"Chapters are well written and the mostly high-quality color figures are useful and relevant. This volume illustrates that the incremental progress made in any individual study can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of a species. This 'big picture' is lacking for many species, but is sorely needed as management issues continue to become more complicated and pressing as we move further into the 21st century." --Quarterly Review of Biology, September 2012, page 273
