PAMELA S. TURNER

From decades of research with captive dolphins we know that dolphins are smart. But why are dolphins smart? To answer that question scientists need to understand the lives of wild dolphins. Why does a dolphin need to be smart? What is it about the dolphin's environment that might have driven the evolution of its large brain?

In July 2011 I traveled to remote Shark Bay, Western Australia to visit the Shark Bay Dolphin Project headed by Dr. Janet Mann of Georgetown University. Shark Bay is home to thousands of bottlenose dolphins and its shallow waters and healthy ecosystem make it one of the best places in the world to observe natural dolphin behavior...and perhaps uncover what makes dolphins so intelligent.

THE DOLPHINS OF SHARK BAY: coming in fall 2013 from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.