Mark Caney's Blog, page 3

Thoroughly recommend both book and audio book to everyone who loves dolphins…

New review of Dolphin Way Audiobook

I read this excellent book a few weeks ago and have now been given the chance to enjoy the audio version. We travel with Sky and his clan as he comes to terms with his past, his present dilemma and the consequence of his decisions as an Initiate of the Way.

I was drawn into the world of dolphins and our own responsibilities towards their well being. I felt the dolphins confusion and lack of comprehension over the selfish actions of humanity and the changes this brings to their own once idyllic life in the Ocean.

When division arises between members of the clan they are forced to rethink the philosophy of their ancient code of beliefs. This leads to conflict between groups of dolphins and their futures.

A love story which brings Sky to choose between two possible female partners each offering him very different futures.

His decisions involve the lives of his closest friends and the possibility of exile from all he holds dear.

We follow Sky on his many adventures in his attempt to take the correct path.

Dolphins only ask to live their lives in freedom safe from the deterioration of their environment and the actions we as humans inflict on them.

We must respect these highly intelligent beings who’s home lays just beneath us in the Ocean. Marks narration truly brings each character to life and allows us to travel with them on their adventures.

I would thoroughly recommend both book and audio book to everyone who loves dolphins, our oceans and the ever changing environment we and the dolphins share.

M.R.

Why are sharks afraid of dolphins?

Mark Caney talks to Ocean Geographic Society about Dolphins

Watch this interview where Mark talks about dolphin society, intelligence, evolution and his book, Dolphin Way.

Mark Caney to talk for Ocean Geographic Society

I am honoured to have been asked to speak for an Ocean Geographic Society presentation that will take place tomorrow. Please do drop in if you are interested in learning more about dolphin society and intelligence. This will start at 00:30 (half past midnight) UK time on Saturday night which is 01:30 CEST on Sunday. For other time zones, see below.

https://www.facebook.com/OceanGeographic/posts/3695382237148226

If you don’t have Facebook, you can join the hour long session directly at 23:30 UTC on Saturday, 22 August 2020 by clicking this link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84072842011

Mark Caney to be interviewed on Ocean Geographic Live

Mark Caney, author of Dolphin Way

I am delighted to have been asked to feature in one of the Ocean Geographic Society’s online interviews later this month. I will be doing a talk about dolphin intelligence and society. Afterwards, I will be answering questions about dolphins and my book.

Michael Aw is a famous underwater photographer and director of Ocean Geographic Magazine. He gave Dolphin Way a great review in the magazine when it was first published, and he will be interviewing me in the Ocean Geographic Live sessions on Friday, August 21st at 13:00 UTC. You can see some of the fascinating Ocean Geographic Live videos here.

Extinct giant dolphin behaved like a killer whale, study finds

Dolphins may seem cute and friendly, but the largest member of the dolphin family is actually none other than the ultimate hunter of the sea — the killer whale, also known as an orca.Now researchers have confirmed that an ancient dolphin that lived during the Oligocene Epoch — 33.9 million to 23 million years ago — was thefirst cetacean (a type of mammal) using echolocation to navigate underwater and fill the role of apex predator, much like the current-day killer whale.Echolocation allows dolphins to “see” through sound underwater. They do so by emitting calls to locate distant objects in the water, then interpret the echoes of sound waves that bounce off of those objects.The skeleton helps to fill the gaps in the evolutionary narrative of these marine mammals who returned to the sea.Cetaceans are an order of mammal including dolphins, whales and porpoises. Odontocetes, or toothed whales, are an order of cetaceans that includes dolphins, porpoises and all other whales that have teeth, such as sperm whales.The specimen, named Ankylorhiza tiedemani, was discovered partly in rock formations in South Carolina, said the study published Thursday in the journal Current Biology.

Its 15-foot-long body size, a shorter and stronger snout, tooth wear and vertebral formation indicated that Ankylorhiza was the first Odontocete predator that could eat both small- and large-bodied prey and swim faster than other whales. This indicates for the first time that it was one of the few extinct cetaceans to fulfill an ecological position similar to that of killer whales.”We see that same pattern in the fossil record of terrestrial carnivores,” said Anthony Friscia, an adjunct associate professor of integrative biology and psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, who wasn’t part of the study.”For instance, you see a ‘cat-like’ predator arise many different times before you get the modern radiation of cats. This kind of repeated evolution of similar ecologies is the basis of so many studies of how evolution works in the long term.”

Full story: CNN

Dolphin Way audiobook “brings the dolphin world to us”

This new review has just been published of the Dolphin Way Audiobook:

What makes dolphins so majestic? What makes them so peaceful? Would you think that they, like humans, orchestrated a code under the sea? With so many fish in the sea, how do dolphins maintain the harmony, but still hold fear over the others? When we see dolphins, we see happiness, strength, and wisdom. Caney’s story brings the dolphin world to us, in a very human-like way. His intention is clear and the story is enlightening. If you think that you know a lot about dolphins, you may be surprised to find another fun fact embedded in Sky’s life lessons.

Touches The Sky is a good dolphin because he follows ‘The Way’. What is ‘The Way’ exactly? It’s the code that all dolphin must abide by to keep in good grace with their clans. Even bigger, ‘The Way’ was always taught as an ancient practice that was set into motion for all creatures under the sea to live their most peaceful lives. ‘The Way’ instructs that they must only take what is needed to survive. They must not kill another of their species. And so forth…we can understand this as we too have a legal code that we must abide by to live in peace on land. Sky, by no means, is a leader, or so that is what he’s always believed, but when a female dolphin questions his beliefs and the desire for change in an everchanging world, Sky knows that his life will never be simple again. Everything that he thought came so easy with ‘The Way’ has now become difficult and corrupt. His curiosity leads him to long lost questions that he never knew he had…and for that, others are not so keen for him to find the answers too. After being exiled from his clan for directly disobeying ‘The Way’ in an attempt to save his friends, Sky learns the most important lesson of all. Death is never the answer unless absolutely unavoidable. Even though, some within their world still believe it to be acceptable practices for the elite. How can Sky ever hope to instill change in his species so that they can keep living in peace?

Mark Caney, author of Dolphin Way

Caney has an extremely impressive career in diving and the study of wild dolphins. Not only has he written this fictional story about dolphins who abide by a moral code like humans, he is also the narrator or the storyteller. He brings his characters to life with enthusiasm, determination, and curiosity. According to many authors, narration is extremely difficult to accomplish for your own work, so kudos to Caney for being able to capture these creatures with entirely separate personalities, beliefs, and human-like qualities while still sharing his knowledge of the sea. The story translated to audio very well and the scenes were easy to imagine based on descriptiveness and the narration; pace was well matched to boot.

Read full review: Turning Another Page

Dolphins learn unusual hunting behavior from their friends

In the crystal clear waters of Shark Bay in Western Australia, scientists have noticed bottlenose dolphins engaging in an unusual behavior: They guide fish into the empty shells of giant snails, bring the shells to the surface, and then shake them vigorously to dislodge the prey into their open mouths—like a person polishing off a bag of popcorn. That extra effort, known as “shelling,” gets them a guaranteed meal.

Because the dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) use the shells as a trap, this is the second known case of these marine mammals using tools. (The first was reported in 1997 when researchers found that bottlenose dolphins wear marine sponges like protective gloves over their beaks to forage for fish on the sea floor.) Now, researchers have shown that the dolphins of Shark Bay learn shelling from their friends. It’s the first time social learning involving a tool has been discovered in these mammals—and a rare example of such learning in the animal kingdom.

Scientists studying primate cultures have shown social learning is typically found in tolerant species—those animals that are able to peacefully accept others being nearby—with a broad variety of distinct foraging and other techniques that are passed along. For instance, chimpanzees can make twig tools for termite “fishing,” leaf sponges for collecting water, and pointed sticks for hunting bush babies.

Though scientists noticed the shelling behavior more than 10 years ago, it became more frequent following an unusual marine heat wave off Western Australia in 2011. The high temperatures roiled Shark Bay’s ecosystem, and many gastropods—including sea snails—are believed to have died.

“We think the dolphins took advantage of this die-off,” says Sonja Wild, a behavioral ecologist at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. The next season, she says, there was “an incredible increase” in shelling, which made it possible for her to tease out how young adult dolphins learn to do it.

During surveys on the bay between 2007 and 2018, Wild and her colleagues documented almost 5300 encounters with dolphin groups and identified more than 1000 individual dolphins. They also saw 19 dolphins, which came from three genetic lineages, engage in shelling 42 times (see video, above).

Read full story: Science

Mark Caney narrated his own book and he does a really good job with it…

An independent critique of the new audiobook version of Dolphin Way and an author interview has just appeared on the Dab of Darkness book review site. Read it and listen to a sample of the audiobook here. The reviewer gave the book 4.5/5 stars for story and 5/5 stars for performance.

Dolphin Way now an Audiobook

Dolphin Way – Rise of the Guardians is now available in audiobook format. This version is over nine hours long and is read by the author, Mark Caney, himself.

Book Summary

We share this planet with another intelligent race. They communicate fluently, have a society, a culture. They live in harmony with their world, but it is a harmony that is being torn apart by man’s careless acts. Dolphin Way is set in this world. 

The actors are the dolphins, as they try to make sense of a changing Ocean. Dolphin culture evolved over millions of years so that they could remain perfectly attuned with their world, Ocean. Unlike man, they have created an almost utopian society without feeling the need to manipulate their environment, collect possessions, or wage war. But the growing pressure of man’s activities becomes intolerable, and in frustration, one faction seeks an aggressive new path. They make a shocking departure from the Way — the ancient philosophy that has guided them so well through the millennia. 

Sky, a male dolphin close to becoming an Initiate in the Way, unwillingly finds himself caught up in the violent consequences. To save the lives of his closest friends, he will have to risk the worst punishment his clan can inflict and must decide between the two females who challenge everything he believes in.   

The book is aimed at adult readers but will appeal to young adults too. Although it is a work of fiction, the author has based the story on the real lives and capabilities of these amazing creatures.

Get the audiobook




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Watch the ninety-second trailer