Cole: A Bottlenose Dolphin

Page by Wesley R. Elsberry & Diane J. Blackwood While we were in the habit of volunteering our time at the Texas Marine Mammal Stranding Network, a juvenile Atlantic bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) was found on a beach in Louisiana. The young dolphin was handed over to the TMMSN since there was no closer facility willing to care for him. Diane and I were present when the new stranding arrived in Galveston, and from that time until his departure for the GulfWorld facility in Florida, we regularly stood watches with Cole.

From the start, we found Cole to be very engaging.

As Cole recovered from stranding, first he was aloof from humans, since humans had to force-feed him. Once he started feeding voluntarily, he also became much more demanding of social time from his caretakers. In the next set of images, Janice Bauer and Diane Blackwood are shown interacting with Cole.

Since Cole grew up with humans, he had no opportunity to learn the functional and social behaviors that dolphins need to live in the wild. After several months of around-the-clock care at the TMMSN, Cole was placed with the Gulf World aquarium in Florida.