Dolphin F207

Stats

Name: F207, aka Swiss Cheese

Sex: Female

Age: Born 2005

A Dolphin’s Life

Swiss Cheese is the calf of F175 and grand-calf of FB75 (also known as Pup). We’ve observed her more than 680 times since her birth in 2005 and have documented her with three calves. 2071 was born in 2014 and disappeared in 2017. Her second calf, 2072, was born that same year, but did not survive. Her third calf — 2073 — was the second calf we documented during the 2020 calving season. Sadly, that calf disappeared in the summer of 2023 and is presumed dead. We never had a live sighting of her fourth calf — instead, it was identified through DNA testing after it was found deceased and it’s possible the calf may not have ever lived outside the womb.
In this May 2024 picture, F207 is shown with her fifth calf, 2075.
In this 2021 picture, F207 is with 2073, whose face is showing above the water. Did you know that dolphin dorsal fins sometimes have what looks to be skin tabs hanging off? These are actually soft-bodied tassel barnacles, which are temporary attachments that fall off as water conditions change.

A Dolphin’s Voice

A Special Note About the Audio Recording

In collaboration with numerous colleagues over the past 35 years, our dolphin communication research team has collected thousands of hours of acoustic recordings from members of the resident Sarasota bottlenose dolphin community, with a focus on individually distinctive signature whistles. Recordings have been made during periodic health assessments, when we are able to obtain high-quality recordings of known individual dolphins. We are currently in the process of systematically assembling a verified signature whistle catalog, with multiple samples from each of the approximately 1,000 unique recording sessions of almost 300 individual dolphins. Members of this collaborative team, and our student researchers, come from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the University of North Carolina Wilmington, University of St. Andrews, and Hampshire College. Learn more about dolphin communication.