Walk the Walk -- A Dolphin Tail

Culture in Dolphins

It seems that like Humans and Apes; Dolphins share culture among themselves. Near Adelaide on the south coast of Australia is a group of dolphins is learning to "tail-walk". (image to right -- image from BBC NEWS) Tail-walking is not a typical behaviour found in dolphins in the wild but is one taught to them in captivity. A female dolphin in that group, Billie, had spent a short time in a dolphinarium 20 years ago¹.

Twenty years ago Billie had been trapped in a marina lock and was suffering from malnutrition and sickness so they put her in a local dolphinarium for a few weeks in the 1980's. She was never trained while their, but apparently she had seen other dolphins at the dolphinarium tail-walking. It is inferred that with other females in her group having picked up the behaviour of tail-walking that they have learned it from Billie.

Mike Bossley-Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society²

"It would seem that among the Port River dolphins we may have an incipient tail-walking culture."

Sharing cultural behaviour is something that is known in apes and it has been documented that dolphins off Western Australia are known to use sponges as an aid in gathering food and to teach their young how to use them². Tail-walking would be considered a "cultural behaviour"² like language which helps define a group. "we may have an incipient tail-walking culture."²

I know that many species of whales, dolphins, and their kin have differences in "language" between different populations that are different enough that the part of the world an individual is from can be told by the dialect/accent of their speech-song-voice even while they are physically the same species and I believe it has been shown that this is learned behaviour

It is interesting that a skill that probably was learned by one individual in a few weeks by observation by one dolphin has now been mastered and is being taught in her family group. I think it is very interesting how many things we think of as definingly "human" is within the scope of some animal we have studied. Of course dolphins are very intelligent creatures that are very social.

I even recall seeing that sometimes dolphins and whales might even cooperate with feeding... We should try be more like dolphins.

Later!
~ Darrell

120.

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¹ "Wild dolphins tail-walk on water" Richard Black 19 August 2008, BBC NEWS | Science/Nature.

² Dr Mike Bossley, Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, scientist monitoring the group on the Port River estuary.

Is it Magic?

Is Reading Magic?

You might not know the sound of my voice, but you know what I am saying. You would be able to repeat my words to another even if you had never met me. If you are reading these words 200 years after I have passed on from this mortal realm, you would still be able to hear what I have said. You could paint them on canvas, carve them into wood, scratch them into stone, itch them into skin... and still the words could be passed on and heard by others so long as they know the "magic of reading".

...and of course understand English or something equivalent.

I would say it is something pretty magical. We could be sitting -- or standing -- here communicating, by me having recited this into a microphone and recording it as an mp3 file or podcast and you playing my spoken words, but that would require some sort of technology to duplicate. If you print this on paper you can carry it with you and anyone who can see and read English will be able to understand it simply by looking at it -- anyone who understands this magic.

It strikes home with me at times more strongly than others. I researched "runes" -- the primitive letter system used by cultures such as the Norse -- in local and university libraries and one of the articles referred to runic writing found in Kiev. This was the ancient city of Kiev from a time when it was inhabited in part by Norse Traders before 1000 AD. There were bits of writing found on scraps of bark which were found in odd places where they might have been lost or stuck. Places like where they might have gotten between floorboards in wood walkways or in cracks in walls. I am not talking about ancient scrolls here. What struck me was that some were notes saying such things as "pick up three eggs on the way home" or "meet me after class" or "I like Ivan. He is cute." -- things that you might find on notes in any school child's pocket today... or do they only "text" now? I can not remember the exact content of the few notes that they made example of as it was over 20 years ago, but could find it probably. What was said in the article in "Scientific American" (Probably from the 1980's) was that this showed the people used runic writing in their everyday lives.

What I want to say with this is that when we read this -- or could if we were runic readers and understood the language of the Kievian Norse traders -- we are reading the words of a parent or child from over 2000 years ago! ...not some priestly incantation on a pyramid or other monument, but from the scraps of bark from a child's pocket.

We might do a lot with computers like here on the Internet -- I really love using my notebook computer, for instance -- and I would like to get an eBook reader of some sort and perhaps an even more portable way to take notes and write* -- but I can take a book anywhere and read it so long as there is light for my eyes and the environment wouldn't harm the paper. (Reading in swimming pools can be hard on books.) But I don't need a "reader" to read a book once it has been printed.

Reading and writing are very important arts and to someone who does not know how to read, must be a bit like magic. I think to a primitive culture that isn't literate, reading and writing would indeed be "Magic" as much as anything else could be. It is a magic that can be learned and taught of course.

It is also a magic that can open whole worlds!

Later!
~ Darrell

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* Notepads and pencils are wonderful and portable and while I do use them, I have problems with handwriting due to learning disorders and so I tend to rely on typing and other methods of writing that take handwriting out of the equation. I would rather use a trusty notepad when out and about.

Here's the Caboose!

What's a Caboose?

When I grew up any child -- at least in Canada and the USA knew what a Caboose was. I figure most folk who spoke English natively might know that. The "caboose" was the special train car that came at the end of a train. In fact it confused me that passenger trains didn't have them!

Now they no longer put cabooses at the end of freight trains, they have been replaced by electronic boxes of some sort they put at the back of the last car in the train. The function of the caboose as a car for the train crew no longer exists and the entire crew is -- I imagine either in the engine or in the various railroad offices.

Perhaps cabooses have become "extinct" on today's railroads, but what does this mean for the caboose in the English language? I don't imagine that many will miss it and people will simply think that those who talk about getting a "swift kick in the caboose" are a bit eccentric. They might wonder at some of the children's books that talk about trains and mention cabooses. (image of CPR caboose to right -- image from "Railway Photography by Chris vanderHeide") Of course "caboose" might not be the only word that gets you weird looks. What do you think kids today make of "Choo choo train"? Other than special tour trains and museums and in movies and on TV they might not see a steam engine or even if so not equate it with "Choo choo trains".

It is something that has happened again and again with changes in society and technology. When was the last time you talked about a "Hi Fi"? "Gramophone" "Victrola". I wonder how long before "record player" disappears from our normal vocabulary and is relegated to Scrabble games or Crossword puzzles?

I hope that doesn't happen with something like "polar bear".

Later!
~ Darrell

112.