I don't remember why I bought Rachel Smolker's To Touch a Wild Dolphin: A Journey of Discovery with the Sea's Most Intelligent Creatures, but I remember buying it a long time ago. I recently discovered it hidden in a cupboard in my basement, and decided that now is the perfect time to finally give it a read.
To Touch a Wild Dolphin is all about Smolker's days researching wild dolphins at Monkey Mia, a remote place in Australia where wild dolphins were interacting with people. Over the course of about fifteen years, Smolker and her fellow researchers were able to get to know the resident dolphins and learn so much about them as a species.
I really enjoyed when Smolker was talking about the dolphins and the things they discovered, particularly about their social lives. Very interesting stuff. I had a much harder time getting through the chapters that weren't focused on the dolphins though. I was okay with the first few, which detailed Smolker getting to Australia. But there was a later one that centered around a camping trip she took with a few other women that I really wish I had skipped. Sure, that chapter had some anecdotes that talked a bit about what the area was like outside of dolphin research. But it really didn't add anything to the story about the dolphins that I was here for.
But overall, this is a very interesting and fairly quick read (I finished it in a day). It's also really accessible for a general reading audience (not at all scientific/technical).
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