Bottlenose dolphins inhabit warm and temperate seas worldwide.
Generally living in pods, they sometimes form groups that exceed 100 dolphins.
The minimum group size is a child rearing pod formed by 5 or 6 mother and calf pairs, along with several childless females.
The bonds of dolphins in a pod are extremely strong.
There is no change in pod membership for several years during child rearing.
Other females look after the calves should the mother leave its side to feed or sleep.
One characteristic of pods is the simultaneous diving behavior of all its members.
Bottlenose dolphins usually take in air several times a minute,
but they also dive for several minutes at a time in order to chase fish or to escape from a predator.
Simultaneously diving as a pod is thought to be a method of training the calves who aren’t good swimmers.
This behavior is also so well governed that it isn’t difficult to imagine some sort of intimate communication is taking place.
Tail slapping, where the dolphins slap the water surface with their tailfin, is regarded as a signal to dive.
While there is no fixed leader in the pod,
signals from a member are passed on to the calves, and they act in unison.
This method of swiftly following the lead of the first dolphin to spot a predator or some kind of change in the environment is considered to be a means of protecting the entire pod from danger.
However, there are only a limited number of animals that display such advanced social interaction.
How is it that bottlenose dolphins can conduct such intimate communication?
Dolphins have well developed sense organs.
In addition to sharp underwater vision,
they use their familiar echolocation technique to bounce ultrasonic sound off objects to ascertain their surroundings.
And ultrasound isn’t their only trick.
Dolphins frequently make short "clicking" sounds that are considered to be a form of language between individual dolphins.
According to detailed studies, there appears to be basic grammatical structure in the bottlenose dolphin’s language dictating "’what’ and ‘how’ to ‘do something’."
However, detailed research efforts are still unable to tell us how they combine signals like tail slapping with clicking sounds to converse.
Whatever the case may be, there is no doubt that bottlenose dolphins have multiple methods of advanced communication that swiftly unify the actions of the entire group in response to any detected changes in the environment.
Humans do not have such refined sensors with which to measure the natural world.
However, humankind posses the power of analysis, one that goes beyond our natural limitations.
The protection of this diverse and beautiful earth through the analysis of nature is a mission that has been entrusted to humankind.