Discusses the life of a marine scientist and offers firsthand accounts of dolphin behavior, including addressing conservation and environmental concerns.

A “compelling” up-close memoir of a career spent among marine mammals and a portrait of the daily lives of dolphins (Publishers Weekly). Working among charismatic and clever dolphins in the wild is a unique thrill—and this book invites us shore-bound dreamers to join Maddalena Bearzi as she travels alongside them. In a fascinating account, she takes us inside the world of a marine scientist and offers a firsthand understanding of marine mammal behavior, as well as the frustrations and delights that make up dolphin research. Bearzi recounts her experiences at sea, tracing her own evolution as a woman and a scientist from her earliest travails to her transformation into an advocate for conservation and dolphin protection. These compelling, in-depth descriptions of her fieldwork also present a captivating look into dolphin social behavior and intelligence. Drawing on her extensive experience with the metropolitan bottlenose dolphins of California in particular, she offers insights into the daily lives of these creatures—as well as the difficulties involved in collecting the data that transforms hunches into hypotheses and eventually scientific facts. The book closes by addressing the critical environmental and conservation problems facing these magnificent, socially complex, highly intelligent, and emotional beings. “Pairing vivid images of bottlenose dolphins swimming together and caring for one another with descriptions of the meticulous scientific work required to record their behavior, Maddalena Bearzi sheds light on the life of a field biologist…A beautifully written account.”—Library Journal

From Flipper to SeaWorld, dolphins have long captured our hearts. We love these friendly, intelligent mammals, and they seem to return our feelings—they enjoy interacting with swimmers and have been known to encircle people under attack by sharks. Despite our familiarity with dolphins, though, we remain ill-informed about how they evolved, how they function, and how they have interacted with humans for millennia. Dolphin dives into the dolphin’s zoology, as well as its social and cultural history, to offer a comprehensive view of these delightful creatures. Drawing on his years of experience working with and studying dolphins, Alan Rauch explores their propensity to live in pods and their ability to communicate through a variety of clicks, whistles, and other vocalizations. He examines their long relationship with humans, describing how they became the emblem of safe travel and charity, that the ancient Greeks featured them on coins, and that Hindu mythology associated them with Ganga, a river deity. As the rise in popularity of dolphinaria during the 1960s allowed the public access to dolphins, they became central characters in films like The Day of the Dolphin and Johnny Mnemonic and outsmarted humans in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Packed with images and thoughtful insights, Dolphin is a revealing look at one of our favorite sea creatures.

Animals regularly populate philosophical texts as a foil to illustrate what it means to be human. How should we understand this human-animal divide? Not only does it inform us of who we are, it also tells us how we should relate to the larger non-human world. The Speaking Animal interrogates the human-animal divide by looking at our linguistic differences – how the speaking human subject is constructed through its opposition to the dumb animal. Alison Suen begins with an analysis of the role of language in animal ethics, with an eye toward the voice/voiceless opposition that is at work in animal advocacy. After offering a critical analysis of the ethical and political significance of speaking for animals, the booktakes on a more constructive turn, going against the usual interpretation of language as a capacity that allows us to reason. Instead, it argues that our language capacity is also a relational capacity. Language is that which enables us to develop kinship with others – including animal others.

Contemporary and challenging, this thought-provoking book outlines a number of the key dilemmas in animal welfare today and tomorrow. The key issues range from the welfare of fur and fashion animals to debates around intensive farming versus sustainability and climate change, to animals in tourism, rodeos, races and fiestas. The human-animal welfare impact is explored, including human impact on marine mammals, fish, wildlife, companion and farm animals, together with our impact on zoo and laboratory animals. Animal Welfare in a Changing World gives: - Concise, highly readable summaries on the important issues in animal welfare by world experts and key opinion leaders - Opinions which are balanced with an evidence-based approach and are challenging - Color illustrations and links to videos to further illustrate the debates - A wide-ranging collection of case studies and descriptions of animal welfare topics which outline the dilemmas to anchor them in the real world This must-read book is essential for animal and veterinary scientists, ethologists, policy and opinion leaders, NGOs, conservation biologists and indeed anyone who feels passionately about the welfare of animals.

Marine biologists help preserve our oceans and the habitats and creatures that call them home. By observing how sea creatures behave and how they connect with the environment through research, testing, and tagging, marine biologists try to save endangered species to make sure they are here for everyone to enjoy for generations to come! This title will allow students to see that science involves the use of tools to observe and measure things. • Content sidebars • Maps • Text based questions • Bold keywords with phonetic glossary