Family sayings can have forgotten origins!
When anyone in my family made a ‘huffing – puffing’ sort of noise, after running around or doing heavy work, my dad would say ‘you sound like a grampus’. As I grew up I realised than none of us knew what a ‘Grampus’ was – not even my dad! I quizzed him on this and he said that is was something his mother had always said – he was just repeating it. This begins to make sense when I tell you that my grandmother’s father sailed most of the oceans back in the nineteenth century, and that he therefore almost certainly came across Risso’s Dolphin and heard it ‘blow’ (sailing warships can be very quiet places at times). In his day – Risso’s Dolphin had only recently been described and named, so the thing he saw and heard was called a ‘Grampus’.
Pelorus Jack
When scientists try to explain Pelorus Jack’s behaviour (see the article ‘Risso’s Dolphin and Pelorus Jack’) they often say things like: ‘he was possibly an infant bereaved before weaning which might explain his unusual behaviour’ and ‘ he was simply enjoying getting a ride from ships that passed through his home range’. This might well be true, but I prefer to think that he knew what he was doing and simply enjoyed helping sailors! Dolphins often help other dolphins when they are in trouble, there are many reports of dolphins coming to the aid of humans in the sea, and they are certainly intelligent enough to realise that there are people on boats. I don’t think it is too ‘far-fetched’ to imagine some individual dolphins (with free time on their hands – or should that be flippers) deciding to ‘help out’.
