Click here to see Jaap van der Toorn's Marine Mammal pages on basic dolphin anatomy which includes an introduction to the dolphin and it's use of sonar.

One myth that seems not to want to go away is that of dolphins not being able to use their sonar whilst in captive care. Animal-rights activists and groups continue to perpetuate this myth despite their being no actual scientific evidence to support this contention.

A brief review of animal-rights literature will find quotes such as:

"In the wild dolphins use sonar to "see" and to communicate. In captivity they are unable to use sonar because of sound waves bouncing off tank walls."

Perhaps the most glaring fault with such statements is that they choose to ignore the simple fact that much of the pioneering and continuing research on sonar and dolphin vocal communication has taken place using captive animals (see over view in Norris, 1991).

Moreover, in public demonstrations animals are regularly asked to demonstrate their sonar abilities by being blindfolded and can be seen successfully seeking and retrieving objects for their trainers. In point of fact sonar bouncing off objects (e.g. a tank wall) work because animals such as dolphins exploit this effect to see with sound.

In fact, during the research for the UK's Review of Dolphinaria the authors, Dr. Margaret Klinowska and Dr. Susan Brown, visited a number of dolphinaria and successfully recorded animals making both vocalisations and sonar sounds (Klinowska and Brown, 1986). It should be further noted that a dolphins sonar is like the human voice in as such the animals can control the volume and pitch of sonar.


References:

Klinowska, M. and Brown, S. (1986). A Review Of Dolphinaria, London: Department of the Environment.

Norris, K. (1991). Looking at Captive Dolphins. In Pryor, K. and Norris, K. (Eds) Dolphin Societies: Discoveries and Puzzles. Oxford: University of California Press.