Dr. Dudzinski will tell you that while such sounds are very communicative, however, they are not real language.  Just as a human laugh indicates happiness, or a guffaw can mean disbelief, dolphin sounds can convey mood or reactions or any number of things–but they are not the complex building blocks of language. Still, dolphins have no trouble communicating. In addition to sounds, they use touch (gentle or harsh) and visual signals to get their ideas across.

If you found yourself suddenly alone in a tribe of people who did not speak your language, Dr. Dudzinski believes you would still have no trouble communicating enough to cooperatively build something, hunt for food, or maybe even fall in love. So it is for the dolphin. Dolphins can’t share abstract ideas, but they can still let each other know how they feel. For them, that is language enough!

We’re offering a great connection to a tiger quiz there at the zoo this week in our newsletter, the eSafari, and we highly recommend that you give it a try to test your tiger smarts. When you’re finished, the tiger fun isn’t over. The Honolulu Zoo is also offering a downloadable board game on tigers that will be a good time for the whole family.

That’s only the beginning of the enrichment opportunities through the zoo. Check out this page for a plethora of videos, photos, and stories on the enrichment activities that have been provided for the tigers there in Honolulu. And you can read the Zookeeper’s journal, too, to gain a more scientific handle on tigers and their plight as one of the fastest-disappearing animals on the earth.

Share with us any tiger nuggets you find on your own–it will be a great complement to your reading of this month’s Zoobooks issue, Tigers. Thanks, Honolulu Zoo!

Great prestige was once the reward for killing a tiger. Young Indian princes usually killed their first tiger by the age of 11 or 12. In 1965, one Maharajah reported that his total take of tigers was only 1,150.

Nowadays, fortunately, there is no legal hunting of tigers taking place. It is tigers doing the hunting amid the ruins of Ranthambore–once the royal hunting park for the maharajahs of Jaipur. Ranthambore is one of several former princely hunting preserves that have become national reserves to protect tigers and other wildlife.

If people come into tiger territory riding elephants now, it is because they have come as tourists to visit tigers in their natural habitat. It is not surprising that people admire tigers–they are strong, beautiful, intelligent, graceful, and independent creatures. Ancient Indian legends and sculptures depict the tiger as a symbol of power. In Asia, the tiger has always been “the king of beasts.” Enjoy reading about them in your newest Zoobooks issue!

. Do you have a favorite? Enlist the young artists you know to enter our next contest, where winners will appear on the web. By March 10, send drawings done in color or black ink on solid white paper–or submit a story or poem on the animal of your choice (less than 100 words) to: PO Box 712769, Santee, CA 92072-2769.

Dolphins breathe through a blowhole, and breathing air with lungs is one of the biggest indicators that dolphins are mammals rather than fish. Fish swish their tails from side to side; dolphins swish theirs up and down. Their skin is smooth and rubbery, and protects them in cold water.

Dolphins can’t smile, but their mouths are shaped in such a way that they look happy. Maybe they are! They get to ride the waves like surfers, and sometimes leap in the wakes of large ships. They eat lots of their favorite foods–fish, squid, or octopus–by swallowing it whole.

Have you ever wondered if dolphins sleep? They do, but not the way we do. Dolphins float on one side and sleep with one eye open. After a while, they roll over to the other side and open the other eye. Now that’s the ultimate water bed!

Dolphins like to be with other dolphins, and we have the feeling that young Zootles readers are going to like being with dolphins, too. Let us know which of the fun facts in this issue were most popular at your house!

Because our Zoobooks issue this month is Apes, we suggest you start with the zoo’s primate pages first. There you’ll find ape jigsaw puzzles, coloring pages, fact sheets, e-cards, photo galleries, and a gorilla cam, just to get things going. If all that clicking doesn’t wear you out, move on to the pages that explain how some primates got their names; chances to “meet” the primate staff; and opportunities to learn about the individual apes housed there at the National Zoo. We guarantee you’ll have a swinging good time!

More seriously, the National Zoo is very concerned about and involved in ape conservation. Counting all species together, there are fewer than half a million apes left in the world. Educating children about apes and their value on our planet can only be positive, and this zoo, hand-in-hand with your Zoobooks issue, is a great place to start learning.

But apes, of course, are still vastly different from people. Gorillas, the largest apes, have shorter height averages than humans, and weigh a lot more.  All apes have longer arms than they do legs. They are also much stronger–any ape can be counted on to be more powerful than a human of similar size. They are considerably hairier than people, too.

The similarities amuse and puzzle us, and encourage us to protect these animals that are at such risk from poaching, logging, and bushmeat hunting. Africans who live near mountain gorillas are proud of them, and encourage tourists to come see them. Local children love the gentle gorillas in their midst, and grow up knowing firsthand that gorillas–and all apes–are special. 

When a species disappears, the balance shifts. Imagine that the world of nature is like a pyramid made of blocks. Each block has a role to play in holding up the pyramid. If you remove one block, it probably won’t make much difference. Even if you remove 25 blocks, it may not cause much damage. But if you remove hundreds and thousands of blocks, the pyramid will almost certainly fall down. When too many plants and animals disappear, it harms the world we live in, and people suffer. This has already happened in many parts of the world.

We can save endangered animals, however, if we really want to. Some have already been saved by making sure that they were no longer hunted or trapped. Many are given free range in protected preserves. And many are helped to reproduce and replenish their species in zoos.

Reading to a toddler is a launch pad for learning beyond the book. Children who are exposed to a rich vocabulary  early on learn more words. Zoobies Elephants gives us lots of engaging material to talk about. We like pointing to parts of the elephant’s body as we say the words. It’s fun, too, to use an expressive voice as we read the simple text. Try wiggling your finger up and down when reciting the verse in Zoobies aloud. Every time our children make a sound, we can repeat the sound to mimic a conversation. These simple interactive experiences will help boost children’s language development.