"There's always something up with those two.Riley thought you'd enjoy seeing part of a program.They're about halfway done, so we'll head there.And, Marta and Cici can finish feeding Abaco and Anejo.Why did they race home like their flukes were on fire?"Declan regarded the two dolphins that were intently watching the trainers chat.
"Declan!"Cici grabbed his arm and let out a gasp."We saw that big mama tiger shark.I took some great photos of her.Let's take the camera to the shark team after work today and give them the coordinates of where we saw her."As Cici was saying all this, she was bouncing up and down on her toes, and Declan was playing it cool, but Gray had noticed that Declan had initially stiffened a bit when Cici grabbed his arm.
"Sounds like a plan.Let's go see if Riley needs any rescuing, though it looks like both those twerps are still there.Let's go, Gray."As they walked down the dock, Declan explained what was happening.
"So, Nemo and Phoenix are best friends, and they're both young boys, and we're putting them together as another set of pair bonded males, Abaco and Anejo being our number one and most dominant pair.Nemo and Phoenix think they're all that, and they feed off of each other's antics.Basically, if one acts out, the other joins in, and it's chaos.We need them to work together on programs so when we have a smaller tourist group like today, we put them together and they work with either Riley or me.Nemo is 7 years old, and he's my primary dolphin.You already know from the conference that Phoenix is Riley's primary dolphin, and he is 5 years old, but he isn't the size he should be since he started life off not learning to eat until he was almost 3 years old."Declan chatted as he led Gray up the sloped walkway to the treehouse observation outlook.
"We almost considered pairing Phoenix with an older male, but none of them appeared interested in taking him under their pecs, and it's easier to have two males around the same age form a pair bond."
"Umm, I don't understand what you mean when you say pair-bonded males?Don't all the dolphins hang out together?I have to admit, I learned a lot at university, but real-life experience is way cooler than what I've done.And trust me, doing data collection using samples from deceased animals sucks."
"Good question.Sorry, I forgot people see the cute Flipper dolphin on TV and don't know the nefarious undercurrents of real-life dolphins."Declan put his hand out to stop Gray before they walked up the ramp to the observation platform.
"When you see a pod of wild dolphins, it's only females and young males.As soon as a male dolphin is old enough, he forms a pair bond with another male that is for life.They live outside the pod and only come into contact when it's time to mate.Dude, I'm not even kidding you, those boys will come in, snatch up a lovely lady dolphin, and birds and the bees it for a while until they let her go back to her pod.Twelve months later, and ta-da, a dolphin calf is born.The male pair bond is the most stable relationship, and for us to manage all the dolphins here, we make sure that they get along well.That's why we're having Nemo and Phoenix together.Nemo has always had Phoenix's back.Even when he was too sick to do much, Nemo would swim next to him, always with one of his pectoral fins touching Phoenix's side."
Gray was so blown away to learn this little tidbit, and it now made sense why Abaco and Anejo seemed to be so in sync with each other.But something niggled at the back of his brain.
"Sorry, one more question because something makes little sense.If the males come back only for mating, how do they know they're not mating with–" at this Gray trailed off because he didn't know how to ask it?
"Their mom?"Declan said with a laugh, lifting Luna's cooler to ascend the ramp."That's easy; each dolphin has a signature whistle.Kind of like their name.Males have a signature whistle like their moms, so if it sounds the same, you don't play the game–the mating game, that is!"They had reached the top of the observation tower, and Declan put his finger to his lips as they sat down to watch Riley, Nemo, and Phoenix.
From their vantage point above the action, Gray saw Riley standing in waist-deep water with the two young dolphins positioned in front of her as she was chatting with the group of tourists.He could tell from the size difference who was who.Phoenix was the dolphin Riley spoke about at the conference, and from their vantage point he saw how much smaller he was than Nemo.His late start in life with eating fish had stunted his growth, and Phoenix was much lighter grey and he had a pink belly, whereas Nemo was dark grey on his back and even his belly looked to be grey.
"As I was saying, dolphins are mammals, not fish, though they love eating fish."At this, Riley tossed each dolphin a fish, which they easily grabbed and swallowed whole.As soon as they finished, Gray saw Riley tap the top of each dolphins rostrum and they both eagerly opened their mouths and then she made a slow motion her thumb and forefinger like a triangle while walking along the sunken platform, each dolphin following along with their heads above water and their mouths open as they continued to swim around the inside perimeter of the dock.The tourists were oohing and ahhing, taking photos as the two boys swam by them.
Riley continued on, watching the dolphins as she spoke."As you can see, they have a lot of teeth in there, around 88 of them.And I know it's confusing, but the front of their face is called their rostrum, and trust me when I say it's hard as a rock."Riley reached out her hands as Nemo and Phoenix finished their lap, showing off their teeth.She squealed and splashed at them, causing quite the ruckus, and then grabbed a big handful of fish for each dolphin and tossed it in their mouths.All the tourists gasped as Nemo and Phoenix swallowed their bounty whole.
"You're probably wondering if they have all those teeth, why don't they chew their fish?"At this, Gray noticed every tourist nodding their heads."Well, their teeth are for grabbing prey to kill the fish or squid but not for chewing.They also use them for protection.Now, even more confusing is where the heck their nose is if the front part is called their rostrum?That's easy."At this, Riley positioned the dolphins in front of her again and this time tapped each boy on the front bulbous part of their heads, and each dolphin let out a loud chuffing sound, spraying drops of water on Riley's tank top.The unexpected noise made one of the older tourists let out a yelp of surprise, to which everyone responded with a giggle at her shock.
"Yup, it can be frightening if you aren't expecting it.That is their blowhole on top of their head, so what we'd consider being their nose.And I asked the boys to cough by tapping on their heads.All the dolphins are trained to cooperate in their medical behaviours, so it's pretty cool to have them trust us so much.Now, let's get our last 4 guests in the water.Take your time on the ladder."Riley gave each dolphin a fish and motioned underwater to them.As Gray watched, the two young dolphins took off under the platform while the four tourists moved over to the ladder to enter the water.
Riley smiled widely as she gazed up at Declan and Gray."They're doing great so far!"And Declan gave her a thumbs-up.It took a long time to train the dolphins for programs, and while Nemo and Phoenix loved to act out, they were making good progress.
"They look good, and the combo behaviour was awesome.I don't think they've ever done the entire perimeter before.Great jackpot reward."Declan was beaming down at Riley, and as she gave a thumbs up, she turned back to the guests that were now in the water.Two couples faced each other in the waist-deep water with a space in between where the dolphins would come and let them touch their backs.
Gray leaned towards Declan to ask a question quietly."What's a combo behaviour?"Declan leaned in to Gray so he too wouldn't disturb the guests.
"It's when we put two behaviours together.You saw Riley tap their rostrums, and they opened their mouths.Then, when she walked slowly with them and motioned to keep swimming with their mouths open, she combined the open-mouth behaviour with the swim the perimeter behaviour.Typically, it's chaos with those two turkeys.They either swim a quarter of the perimeter and then race back to the trainer, or they do some random pattern and race back to the trainer.It's hard not to react, but some days I just want to laugh so hard.They did it perfectly today, which is why Riley was jumping up and down and giving them lots of praise.All that fish at once is called a jackpot reward."At this, Declan motioned to Gray to watch the interaction below.
Riley was chatting with the tourists, going over how to touch the dolphins and where not to touch them, like sticking a finger in their nose.This always got laughs no matter how many times the trainers said it.Once Riley had gone over everything, she moved to the side and gave a loud slap on the water to call Nemo and Phoenix back to the program.Gray saw they were a ways out in the lagoon, but as soon as they heard the slap, they quickly changed direction and went racing back to Riley.But before they got all the way back to her, they suddenly stopped about 2 feet away from Riley.Something was happening.Gray didn't know what, but Declan leaned forward and let out a low hiss while Riley cocked her head to the side watching the two dolphins.
Nemo and Phoenix were underwater, blowing giant air bubbles to the surface and shaking their heads furiously back and forth like they were the stars of a horror movie, silently screaming at something.Declan abruptly stood up as Nemo and Phoenix jumped backwards out of the water, each squealing and took off to the far side of the lagoon.The guests gasped, with those standing in the water bewildered by what had happened and why they were all soaking wet.Riley glanced up at Declan as he grabbed Luna's cooler, calling down to Riley, "On it" as he left the observation tower, hurrying to the Luna's pen right off the walkway.
Riley calmly turned to the guests in the water as one of the older women asked, "Where did they go?"They were confused and wondered if the dolphins would be back.
As Riley looked over the guests, she motioned to the two fleeing dolphins."Well, it seems they won't be back.Don't worry, my partner Declan is bringing our lovely Luna out to finish the program."Riley pointed to where Declan was untying the rope for the underwater gate.She gave him a small signal to wait before bringing Luna out and turned back to the older woman who'd asked where the dolphins went.
"Ma'am, can I ask you something?"Riley had her sweetest smile on, waiting for a response.
"Of course, dear, what is it?"The woman appeared to Riley to be in her later years; she guessed in her sixties.
"This will seem odd, but you don't have a knee or hip replacement, do you?"Riley was pointing to the woman's knee and hip as she asked.
"Why yes, I have one of each!Got my new hardware last year.What a strange question!How did you know?"The woman had an amused expression on her face, and everyone else listened intently, wondering what was happening.Riley turned back to Declan and nodded as he let Luna out to join the end of the program.
"The dolphins let me know.They are used to seeing people every day, and they'll use their echolocation to quickly scan each person standing in the water.When they scan and someone 'looks' different, it freaks them out.Metal in the body is a big scary thing for them and pregnant women.We have waivers that guests sign saying they are not pregnant, but there's always someone who lies, and the dolphins immediately rat them out.They'll start scanning the woman's belly and doing what you saw Nemo and Phoenix do — the wiggles and jiggles and squeals and then poof!Gone!If you think about it, for the dolphins, they're suddenly seeing two heartbeats, and for them it's a no go."As she finished saying this, Luna appeared at the dock, popping her head up ready for some fishy reward.
"Hello lovely Luna."Riley turned back to the dock as Declan set down Luna's cooler for Riley.
