Tag: Sousa chinensis

The captivity dilemma

Happy new year!  I’ve made a resolution to post at least three times a month, even if each post is just a photo or a thought.  Let’s see how long this lasts!

A while back, one of the undergrads told us that the nearby Nanning Zoo keeps a Chinese white dolphin.  We had some concerns and suspicions about the dolphin:  that it was being kept in poor conditions; that it had been purchased on the black market in Thailand; that it wasn’t a Chinese white dolphin at all.  We finally had the chance to take a look for ourselves.

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Dancing with the dolphins

Every now and then, especially playful dolphins swim up to our boat and show off a little, leaping over our bow and passing repeatedly as if to get a closer look at those clumsy, noisy bipeds.

Usually, only younger dolphins (marked by gray coloration) show such curiosity and playfulness.  For the first time in my short dolphin-watching career, an adult (white with spots) dolphin danced with us during a recent outing.

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