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WHALES 



tigure (jfj. A female dolphin (Lagenorhynchus obliquidens) performing tricks in The 

 Marineland of the Pacific, California. Photograph: D. H. Brown, Alarineland, California. 



that we in Europe will have to wait quite some time before we can hope 

 to rival American achievements. 



Dolphins are general favourites with the spectators because of their 

 entertaining antics. They are extremely lively, keep swimming round the 

 aquarium, jvunp right out of the water, play with one another and with 

 fishes or floating objects- in short, they are as playful as could be and form 

 a strange contrast to the phlegmatic sea-cows in some European zoos. 

 Like elephants, bears and monkeys, they can be taught all sorts of tricks, 

 though, naturally, we cannot expect them to eat at a table, to ride a 

 bicycle or to brush their teeth - their bodies are just not built that way. 

 But when we read that Flippy, the star turn of Marineland, not only ate 

 out of her keeper's hand and caught fish in mid-air, but that she could also 

 tug at a bell, blow a trumpet, fetch a ball, jump through a paper hoop 

 and, with special harness, pull a boat holding a girl and a dog, we can 

 see why most aquaria are so keen to have them. Skinny, the prima donna 

 at Hermosa Beach, and the dolphins in The Marineland of the Pacific and 

 other aquaria (the Pilot Whale included), are no less agile (Figs. 99 and 

 100) and learn new tricks all the time. One of them is in fact a dab hand 

 with the hula-hoop. More surprising still is the fact that dolphins in their 

 natural state can also make friends with man. Thus, the dolphin which 



