Dolphin Address 19
September 15, 2004
We have been wondering about the dolphin's perspective. Dusty's possessive behavior can be understood as prey-oriented but also as an effort to secure one-on-one communication. We also witnessed her invariable high interest in our monofins. I always thought this had to do with the similarities with her own fluke. She often moves into it very close, sometimes she sonars it and she has even, in a careful manner, pushed us a few meters. When we take the monofin off she seems absolutely absorbed by that very act. Her curiosity seems to be drawn to the fact that we can take it of as a separate item. So far this has been a class of single events. We saw no more meaning than the obvious ones.
The other day though, we were swimming with a friend of Verena. After a while she got tired and I suggested to push her at her feet while she held the wing in her hands. Dusty was intensely interested and did an unusually extensive study on the spot where our hands and feet met. It seemed quite clear that this was very new for her: a double human.
When a dolphin is born, it does not wear swimming trunks, nor does the mother wear a bra. A dolphin has no attachments, it is 100 % dolphin. One might suppose she sees a swimmer as a whole too and this would include trunks or a wetsuit, maybe even snorkel, mask and flippers. This may account for her surprise when a flipper comes of a foot. We would be equally surprised in our way if she would take of her dorsal fin. Maybe she even views camera's and budgy-boards as assets to the human condition. She could even perceive them as access to a humanoid status.
The return of the waterwing (
DA 7 2004) would prove it is too delphinoid.
On a less abstract level she may just have wanted to be part of our swim: she lured me away from Verena who got her total exited attention with a hands free swim(as I had both wings).
If anyone out there in cyberspace could shed more light on the dolphins behavior we'd be happy to publish your view on the site. Let's take it away for Dusty!
Jan Ploeg, Fanore meadow, September 15th, 2004
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