Researchers document dolphins' resiliency post-Katrina
Nearly five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Mississippi Gulf Coast, dolphins are proving as resilient as their human counterparts at re-establishing their home there, based on the research of a University of Southern Mississippi professor and his students.
Dr. Stan Kuczaj, professor of psychology and director of the Southern Miss Marine Mammal Behavior and Cognition Laboratory, has studied dolphin cognition and communication as well as correlations between dolphin and human behavior for more than 20 years. His findings on their rebound from the storm were featured in an article recently published in Marine Mammal Science.
A dramatic increase in the number of dolphin calves in the Mississippi Sound were documented by Kuczaj’s team two years following the Aug. 29, 2005, storm. The proportion of calves to other dolphins increased by more than 600 hundred percent from the summer of 2005, immediately before Katrina made landfall, to spring 2007.
“Dolphins are a key element of the coast’s ecosystem, and our research examines in part how they and humans co-exist, especially with regard to our fishing industry,” he says. “To see that they have returned in force is encouraging."
Kuczaj and his team believe the decrease in commercial and recreational fishing following Katrina may have resulted in increased fish populations for the dolphins to prey upon, which in turn could have resulted in more successful births. The researchers also found that dolphin foraging is sometimes interrupted by boats, and so the reduction of boat traffic following Katrina may have allowed the dolphins to be more efficient hunters.
These factors could have contributed to the observed increase in the number of calves, Kuczaj says. “Although this makes it seem like Katrina was a blessing for the dolphins, the storm could have killed dolphin calves, which would have resulted in more fertile females.”
Angela Mackey, a doctoral student in experimental psychology from Laramie, Wyo., who works in the laboratory, co-authored an article with Kuczaj on the storm’s impact on the dolphins in the area titled “Potential Effects of a Major Hurricane on Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops Truncatus) Reproduction in the Mississippi Sound." Her master’s thesis also focused on the dolphins in the Mississippi Sound.
“This has been a great experience for me to examine a dolphin population that prior to our research had not been well-studied before,” she says.
Dr. Joe Olmi, chairman of the Department of Psychology, says the research conducted by Kuczaj and his students has brought national and international notoriety to the university. “The work being conducted by Stan and the students in his laboratory is nothing short of amazing. We’re fortunate to have him as a member of our faculty. He’s a credit to us all.”
NOVA to spotlight Southern Miss dolphin research
Kuczaj’s research on the popular marine mammal, which has been funded by the Office of Naval Research and the U.S. Department of Commerce, will also be spotlighted in a fall episode of the acclaimed television program NOVA that will focus on animal intelligence. NOVA is a production of Public Broadcasting Service (PBS).
Kuczaj and a film crew from NOVA spent spring break in Roatan, Honduras documenting the research group’s efforts to learn how two dolphins communicate when they are simultaneously producing novel behaviors. They also interviewed Kuczaj at length regarding his work on dolphin cognition.
“It’s gratifying for NOVA to be interested in our research, which reflects well on the hard work of the undergraduates and graduate students who make up our team. It was also another opportunity for us to collect data, and the NOVA team helped. They were as intrigued with what we found as we were.”
The research in Honduras began five years ago through a study abroad program near Utila, sponsored by Southern Miss International Education.
“The study abroad program has proven very beneficial to our research, because we have an active lab and the things we do are greatly enhanced when they include international collaboration,” Kuczaj says. “It sharpens our research by giving us access to new information and differing perspectives on our subject.”
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