The Ultimate Guide: Dolphins

The Age

Friday January 18, 2008

Brad Newsome

The Ultimate Guide: Dolphins

Discovery Science, 7.30pm

My ultimate guide to dolphins would include four things right off the bat: they're gang rapists; they murder dolphins of other species and even the young of their own species; American and Soviet navies have trained them for mine detection and deployment; and at least one pod in Western Australia teaches its youngsters to wear sea sponges on their snouts for protection while foraging in the sand. This doco has some interesting stuff about dolphin evolution and physiology (how their lungs collapse when diving, for instance) but far too much of the territory covered is familiar, dull and/or pointless. -- BRAD NEWSOME

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