Page 28 - Bookfield Zoo Chicago Annual Report 2024
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Sarasota Dolphin Research Program (SDRP) Updates
The Zoo’s Sarasota Dolphin Health Assessments and Research
Research Program (SDRP) is
• SDRP staff led a team of 142 researchers, veterinarians, students,
the world’s longest-running handlers, and trainees from 10 countries during five days of dolphin
dolphin conservation research in Sarasota Bay from May 8 to 12. The team safely and success-
fully conducted 44 separate research projects with each of the six dolphins
research program, which
handled, four of which were handled for the first time. The project was
has allowed staff to funded by Dolphin Quest, NOAA Prescott, NIEHS (College of Charleston),
study individual animals University of Southern Denmark, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution/
FAU, Aarhus University, Fundacion Oceanografic, National Marine Mammal
throughout their lives.
Foundation, and Clearwater Marine Aquarium.
This unique level of back-
• The SDRP conducted the second year of its novel program of offshore
ground knowledge has led
health assessments and tagging of bottlenose and Atlantic spotted dolphins
to new understandings over the West Florida Shelf, funded through the Florida RESTORE Act
about the dolphins’ biology, Centers of Excellence Program. Five dolphins were caught, examined,
sampled, tagged, released, and tracked via satellite-linked transmitters.
ecology, social structure,
In addition, for the first time, a tag was deployed remotely on an Atlantic
and health and provides spotted dolphin via a prototype Tag Attachment Device on a pole (TADpole),
guidance on how we can opening up a new option for tagging dolphins without the need for
help them. In addition to catch-and-release. TADpole work was funded by NOAA RESTORE.
ongoing monthly monitoring
(top) A bottlenose dolphin with a
suction-cup-mounted digital acoustic of the long-term resident Dolphin Communication Research
archival tag (DTAG) leaps off the coast
of Sarasota, Florida. The DTAG records Sarasota dolphin commu- The SDRP has been recording bottlenose dolphin whistles since 1975 and
sounds and details of behavior for nity members and seasonal created a database that contains 938 recording sessions of 302 individual
24 hours before releasing from
the dolphin. The tag is recovered through prey fish surveys, SDRP dolphins. The database enabled the SDRP and colleagues from Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and the University of St Andrews to study
radio-tracking, data are downloaded and staff engaged in:
analyzed by researchers from Woods Hole dolphin communication and find that each individual dolphin uses a unique
Oceanographic Institution, University of “signature whistle” to identify itself to and maintain contact with others of its
St Andrews, and Aarhus University, and species. In ongoing research using the database, researchers documented
the tag is ready for its next deployment. that dolphin mothers alter their signature whistles—use higher frequencies—
(bottom) In the first research in the presence of their own calves. They compare this to motherese or baby
of its kind in the Gulf of Mexico, talk that human caregivers use when speaking to infants and children. Scien-
a bottlenose dolphin nicknamed “Per” tists believe this speech pattern enhances attention, mother-calf bonding,
swims away over the West Florida Shelf and vocal learning in dolphin calves.
after a health assessment and receiving
a satellite-linked tag and a DTAG.
24 BROOKFIELD ZOO CHICAGO
