Attention: Check out the Cetacean Ecology & Animal Behavior pages (under the College Courses section of the Education menu) to find out if any courses are currently accepting applications!
The Dolphin Communication Project offers custom field courses both independently and in conjunction with a number of different universities throughout the world. If you are a university professor or field-course organizer looking to bring your students to a DCP field site to learn more about dolphin and marine science, please contact DCP for more information. If you are a student, please watch the DCP website for upcoming course offerings, or contact your professors to ask if they might be interested in setting up a field course with DCP. A general overview of our Animal Behavior and Cetacean Ecology programs are included below. Each course can be tailored to your university’s needs.
During all of our courses students will be introduced to dolphin science using a combination of lectures, readings, discussion, and hands-on research.
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ANIMAL BEHAVIOR
Course Description & Objectives
Lectures will focus on understanding animal behavior from an ecological and evolutionary perspective. Readings and discussion will focus on current research and methodology. Fieldwork will allow students to develop the skills necessary to conduct animal behavior research and to demonstrate these skills by participating in independent research with senior scientists at the field location(s). The field component for your Animal Behavior course is completed with DCP Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences (Roatan, Honduras). Contact us to discuss what options will work best for you.
Please visit the Animal Behavior page for more details about this course.
Contact us at info {at} dcpmail {dot} org or via snail mail:
Dolphin Communication Project
P.O. Box 7485
Port St. Lucie, FL, 34985, USA
Field Course in Cetacean Ecology
Bimini, The Bahamas
*DCP’s Bimini field courses have been suspended until further notice. We hope to resume these amazing programs soon! Continue reading for background on what the programs entailed.*
The island, or more accurately islands, of Bimini lie less than 50 miles off the east coast of Florida. Here, DCP hosts our Field Course in Cetacean Ecology during which students have the opportunity to observe the wild dolphins of Bimini: Atlantic spotted dolphins (Stenella frontalis) and common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus). For more information about our Bimini, The Bahamas field site, check out the “Research Sites” section under the “Research” menu.
Some programs will be fulfilled in their entirety on Bimini, while others will have a classroom component to be completed at the home institution before and/or after the field portion. The Bimini component of each course can range from 6 – 15 days. Field work on Bimini generally consists of morning lectures & practicals followed by 4-5 hour boat trips in a pre-designated survey area.
If you are looking to go beyond cetaceans in your course, Bimini offers the perfect field setting for topics in shark and ray biology, reef fish identification and mangrove systems. Boat time can be shifted from dolphin surveys to any of these topics, or additional boat time may be added. For more information, please visit the Cetacean Ecology page under Education –> College Courses.