Tonight the kids and I watched an Imax movie called Dolphins, which follows scientists studying dolphin behavior. It was quite an entertaining movie, but it was not as entertaining as my story to the kids of the dolphin show I used to watch as a kid called Flipper.
The kids got a kick out of my description of the show’s typical plot, where these two boys could magically communicate with Flipper. The dolphin would pop up from the water, make dolphin gibberish sounds, and convey the most sophisticated messages.
“Click, squeak, rattle, squeak, squeak!” Flipper would say to the boys.
“What’s that?” they’d reply. “Hap needs help at the boat shop? Let’s go!”
I never knew how they did it, because Flipper would make the exact same sounds every time. Wikipedia tells me now that it wasn’t even dolphin sounds but actually the altered sounds of a kookaburra.
Anyhow, it’s good to see that our understanding of dolphins has grown considerably since the 1960s and I’m glad my kids are learning about them the right way!