Dolphins - Tapa dura

These four companion books take a dramatic look at our watery planet. People like dolphins. Their perpetual smile, apparent kindliness, and intelligence said to rival humans have endeared them to people who meet them or see them in dolphinaria, movies, or on television. Modern research, however, reveals that dolphins are not always what they seem. As well as the caring, friendly side to their nature, they can be aggressive, dangerous, and have been known to kill humans, albeit in self-defense. Dolphins looks at current research and reflects the scientific community's fascination with a large-brained creature exhibiting behavior that can only be described as "intelligent." Chapter one reveals not just one "dolphin" but over 30 species, each with its own lifestyle and place in the world's oceans. It show how dolphins "see" the world using sound, hear through their jaws, and sleep with one half of their brain at a time. Chapter two invites the reader to enter the dolphin's social circle, revealing how mothers and babies are the stable focus of dolphin life, while male dolphins can form lifelong bullyboy gangs that terrorize the local community. Chapter three details ingenious methods of catching fish with the help of dolphins and their use of tools. The final chapter looks at the relationship between dolphins and people and review the Doctor Dolittle-like obsession of scientists to communicate meaningfully with another species.

Michael Bright is a senior producer at the BBC's world renowned Natural History Unit (NHU) in Bristol, UK. A graduate of the University of London, he joined BBC Radio's Science Unit in 1971. After a spell in television on Tomorrow's World and Horizon, he moved to the NHU in 1979. He was editor of the NHU's radio section for many years, and a recipient of the prestigious Prix Italia for the feature Men, Nations and Whales: Will the Bloody Story Never End?, before moving to television for Wildlife on One and Natural World. He was producer of the environmental series Nature and the children's drama Earthstars, and he set up the NHU's commercial arm, Wildvision. He has written more than 55 books, including Animal Language, Gorillas, and Andes to Amazon: A Guide to Wild South America for the BBC.