Dolphins

Helen’s brilliant drawing of a dolphin leaping out from under the sea…

Okay, what are we blogging about?

Scott: That’s a hard question.

Anything exciting at school today?

Scott: Eh… Em… Not really.

Did you read anything exciting?

Scott: Eh… What do you mean? I mean no, I haven’t read anything exciting.

Helen, what do you want to blog about?

Helen: Whales.

Scott: Let’s blog about whales, then.

She always wants to talk about whales.

Scott: I think she does.

What about something else?

Helen: Eh… Dolphins.

Why do you always want to talk about water creatures?

Helen: I just wanted to talk about a water creature.

Tell me about dolphins, then.

Helen: Eh… They jump up from under water.

Scott: Yeah, you could say that. Think of a dolphin and a cow and then think: “This is a picture of two dolphins, the more difference I see between the two, the more stressed you are.” They’re very different, so you’re very stressed.

Are dolphins clever?

Helen: Eh… I don’t know.

Scott: I wouldn’t have thought so.

Helen: They are.

Scott: As in – I don’t really know.

They’re really clever.

Scott: Really, how do you know?

They’ve got their own language.

Scott: Really? Every animal has its own language.

They can learn to do things.

Scott: Like?

Jumping and tricks.

Scott: Yeah.

Eh… And other clever stuff too.

Scott: Really?

Are they your favourite water creature, Helen?

Helen: Eh… My favourite is mostly a humpback whale.

Scott: Why didn’t you blog about that?But dolphins can be quite interesting…

…And Scott’s great drawing of a whale/dolphin.

Steve Backshall

So you went to see Steve Backshall today for Luke’s birthday – how was he?

Scott: I’ll tell you – 100 per cent of the chances you don’t take, you’re not going to end up with.

What does that mean?

Scott: I mean that Steve saw a brand new type of fake ant and it… And he didn’t take it. And that’s one of the opportunities that he missed that he didn’t take, and it could have been a great discovery.

Why didn’t he take it?

Scott: I don’t know.

What else did he tell you?

Scott: Lots of things. Never to be scared of animals. Here’s one way… If you went into a class of four and five-year-olds and showed them a tarantula, they’d be excited and happy. Then in a class of seven and eight-year-olds, they’d get all scared. It’s better to be in the four and five-year-olds, because they’re not scared.

That’s true. Did he say what the scariest animal he’s met is?

Scott: Well, the scariest thing that’s happened to him… Humpback whales have a very special way of catching fish and they did it all round Steve’s boat. And it was just a little one.

How do they catch fish?

Scott: It’s about a group of 15 humpback whales – one of those humpback whales goes down and blows bubbles the other whales can’t get through, then they all rise above the surface and catch about a dozen fish in one go.

Sounds like you really enjoyed it and you learned a lot too.

Scott: There’s lots of things. For one, people should stop hunting tigers and lots of other endangered species. And people should stop being scared of snakes and sharks – if you’re not, that’s good. Well, snakes don’t actually want to hurt anybody. If you go near it, it likes to say: “Ssssss…” It’s trying to be scary, it doesn’t want to hurt you. It hardly does any harm unless something really, really bad happens. Well, sharks do look scary as you know, but I won’t say that they do actually harm you. If you went down swimming with a shark, it mainly wouldn’t bite you or anything.

I’ve learned so much – thank you!

Helen: Bravo! The amazing shark eater. The amazing broccoli eater, I mean. I like broccoli, do you Scott?

Scott: Yes, I do – now be quiet.