Name: F256, also known as Jo Bob

Sex: Male

Age: Born 2007

We know this dolphin’s lineage back through five generations — he is the second calf of Little Orphan’s Annie, grandcalf of Bobby Jo, great-grandcalf of FB37 and great-great-grandcalf of Cathy.

Jo Bob is the first-documented surviving fifth generation dolphin in the resident Sarasota dolphin community.

Given that his grandmother, Bobby Jo, was orphaned when she was only 16 months old, it is amazing that this lineage continued this long. Bobby Jo’s mother died from a stingray barb, and Bobby Jo continued to survive on her own — she was not adopted by any other dolphins.

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.

Jo Bob feeding along a seawall

Jo Bob often chases fish toward seawalls, using the walls as a barrier to limit the fish’s movements so he can catch them. He likely learned this behavior from his mother and grandmother, who also used this technique.

Jo Bob socializes with dolphin 1255

This photo was taken in 2017. Dolphin 1255 is Jo Bob’s sibling. The calf was just 4 months old in this picture, while Jo Bob was 10.