On Sunday, before Dr. Dudzinski said goodbye, she fixed Colleen’s water bottle! Then we said goodbye and headed to South Bimini. While waiting for the water taxi, the one rain cloud in the sky opened up over our heads! In this heat, we dried pretty quickly and enjoyed our water taxi ride, chatting with the ferry driver.
Monday morning started as any other day – we had no idea what was to come! But first, we took care of morning business and then had a great class with Dr. M. We discussed comparative methods when studying animal behavior. We got a quick and dirty summary of dolphin evolution and which showed us how dolphins and cows are “related.” We talked about cladograms, analogous and homologous features and divergent and convergent evolution. We covered ritualization and fixed action patterns; the same behaviors can be brought about by different stimuli.
On Saturday, our main class session was a guest lecture from Dr. Dudzinski. Dr. Dudzinski spoke about social living. We chatted about the difference between the word “pod” and “group,” with pod requiring the genetically relatedness (like matrilineal groups in killer whales). One of the first things she showed us was a video of bottlenose dolphins interacting and she asked us if we thought it was play or fighting. Most of us thought it was play – but nope! It was an aggressive interaction.
On Friday, we went bananas for starting our day with bananas! After our field report, we practiced photo-ID skills and were introduced to Lil’ Jess (#35). Our main class session was on play. Dr. M shared some great information, including some awesome videos. How did the elephants not pop the pool?! We discussed fighting and the difference between play fighting and real fighting. Play fighting may prepare individuals for real aggressive interactions.
On Thursday, we woke once again to an ocean-themed quote on our refrigerator courtesy of Dr. M. After breakfast and writing our field report, we discussed DCP’s MVA. It was very impressive that when technology for a research project did not exist, Dr. Dudzinski and her advisors solved the problem! Dealing with sound traveling ~4.5x faster under water makes identifying which dolphin is making a vocalization very difficult. The spaced hydrophones on the MVA help solve this problem.
On Wednesday morning, we had a short practice session with photo-ID. During this practice session, we were introduced to Trudy (#57) and Addie (#84). While Trudy was easy to recognize because of her distinct dorsal notch, Addie’s “unsorted” photograph also seemed easy since she had a seemingly major injury. We were surprised that this injury did not in fact leave a permanent scar. During our next class, Dr. M discussed field sampling methods. We saw ways in which the same method can be applied to different study species, and scenarios in which you would actually combine methods.
Tuesday’s breakfast included our first taste of Bimini bread. We really like its sweetness – some with salty butter! We quickly packed sandwiches, because we had a morning boat trip! The water was so clear and blue – it looked like blue jell-o. We saw a large cushion starfish under a boat and spotted eagle rays in the harbor. Everything is so big! No matter how deep the water was, we could see straight to the bottom. It seemed like the perfect weather to accomplish our mission of finding dolphins.
With our course with Sacred Heart University just a day behind us, Nicole and I welcomed 14 students from Eastern Kentucky University (EKU), and their professor, Dr. Radhika Makecha, to Bimini! They too will be here for 12 nights, learning about dolphins and experiencing Bimini. We hope you enjoy reading their field reports!
-Kel
PS: Their mascot is the Colonel!
On Monday, with not much sleep behind those of us who traveled from Kentucky, we began our journey to Bimini.
Saturday was our last full day with “The PEDuncadunks” (SHU 2015) and it began with torrential downpours. We had planned to do our last-day beach cleanup right after breakfast but the intermittent rolls of thunder delayed us for a bit in the hopes that the storm would clear up. At around 10 it seemed that we might have the perfect window of opportunity so we headed out to the beach with our garbage bags and sanitary gloves...and it started pouring.
With no readings due for Friday, we woke refreshed. After breakfast, we had a tour scheduled instead of class. We met up with Ashley Saunders, who showed us around his “Dolphin House.” It was so cool the way he burns the conch shell to make a mortar; with a few other natural ingredients, this becomes a great adhesive to put his mosaics on the wall.