One of my parishioners showed me some exceptional photos of his daughter interacting with dolphins. She is Sarah Kennedy and works at the Florida Keyes Dolphin Research Center. Dolphins are often regarded as one of Earth's most intelligent animals, though it is hard to say just how intelligent. Dolphins are highly social animals, often living in pods of up to a dozen individuals, though pod sizes and structures vary greatly between species and locations. In places with a high abundance of food, pods can merge temporarily, forming a superpod; such groupings may exceed 1,000 dolphins.
Dolphins can, however, establish strong social bonds; they will stay with injured or ill individuals, even helping them to breathe by bringing them to the surface if needed. This altruism does not appear to be limited to their own species. They have also been seen protecting swimmers from sharks by swimming circles around the swimmers or charging the sharks to make them go away. Dolphins communicate using a variety of clicks, whistle-like sounds and other vocalizations. They also use nonverbal communication by means of touch and posturing.
These photos show Sarah working and playing with dolphins, including my favorite photo, synchronized diving, with the dolphin’s tail and Sarah’s feet disappearing in the water simultaneously.
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