Non-Acoustic Communication in Small Cetaceans: Glance, Touch, Position, Gesture, and Bubbles

Behavior enables an animal to interact with and survive in its environment. In cetaceans, as in all other animals, sensory systems exist to serve behavior. Perhaps more than most animals, cetaceans may be said to live in two worlds: their physical universe of air and water, and the social universe of the other dolphins around them. Their sensory systems serve them in both. In the physical universe, sensory systems are used in locomotion, foraging, maintaining physical and physiological equilibrium, and so on. In the social universe, sensory systems are used in communication In fact, it might be said that all social behavior constitutes communication.