Klein, Joanna. “A Dolphin’s Recipe for Octopus.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Apr. 2017, Accessed 5 Apr. 2017. <www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/science/dolphins-toss-shake-eat-octopus.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=sectionfront.>
I choose to read Joanna Klein’s article, “A Dolphin’s Recipe for Octopus.” Overall, I thought the article was extremely well written. The article began by discussing the difficult dolphins go through to eat an octopus. If dolphins fail to do this correctly, they will be killed. However, bottlenose dolphins in Australia still have managed to do so. The article includes photos showing how dolphins kill the octopus they eat. To kill them, dolphins bit off their head, shake their body, and toss the octopus and slam it against the water until it is broken into bite size pieces. Before these photos were taken, scientists knew that dolphins all over the world ate octopus but did not know how. Many dolphins have been killed and/or suffocated while trying to eat the octopus. So scientists question why they would go through this risk for a meal. Scientists hypothesize that dolphins consume nutrients from octopus that they fail to find other places. Dolphins strategically plan when to eat octopus. For example, octopus are most commonly consumed by dolphins during the winter and spring when water is choppy so that their attack has the highest rate of success.
This article is important because it can help us to learn about the habits of both dolphins and octopus. This helps us expand upon our knowledge of the intelligence of dolphins. We have know they are one of the most intelligent creatures, but this article helps us learn how intuitive they are. We are also able to learn what their common methods for attacking prey are. We also are able to learn about the defense mechanisms of octopus. This expands our knowledge of the world around us which is helpful to scientists in the future.
Overall, I enjoyed the article. I liked how it included the pictures the article was discussing. I also liked how the article discussed both the negatives and positives dolphins experienced from consuming octopus. One thing I disliked about the article was how it failed to mention what the importance of the findings were. Therefore, I had to infer what this information could be used for. I found this article interesting because it was fascinating the extreme effort and risk dolphins experience when consuming an octopus. I would be interested to learn more about the risks and benefits dolphins have with consuming and killing octopus.
Margot wrote an excellent response to the article “A Dolphin’s Recipe for Octopus” by Joanna Klein. She began with a succinct yet detailed summary of the article in which she mentioned the most important points of the article while explaining the information in a way that was easy for the reader to understand. I thought that Margot also did a great job of setting up the observations of the scientists before providing their hypothesis that dolphins go to the trouble of hunting and consuming octopus in order to obtain valuable nutrients. This helped the reader to believe the hypothesis of the scientists and understand the importance of the difficult process that dolphins execute in order to eat an octopus. Margot also wrote an effective paragraph in which she described the article’s importance to society by beginning more specifically with how results of the study can help us to appreciate the intelligence and anatomy of the dolphin and octopus, and then broadening its importance to how it expands our collective knowledge of the world.
ReplyDeleteWhile Margot wrote a thorough and well-written current event, there are two places that she could improve upon. I think that an inclusion of one or two relevant quotes from experts could really go a long way in increasing the credibility of her response, and providing the reader with a different perspective on the dolphin study. I also thought that the grammar of the piece could be improved overall. By cleaning up the tenses and checking the coherency of her current event, Margot could guarantee her readers a clear and coherent interpretation of the article.
After reading this current event response, I have learned about an important new scientific development. I find the difficult and dangerous process that dolphins go through in order to consume octopus extremely interesting. I am also fascinated by the hypothesis of the scientists and I wonder how this relationship and need to hunt octopus despite the risk connects to other relationships in nature.
I read Margot's review of the article, "A Dolphin's Recipe for Octopus." There were many aspects of her review that were well done. Firstly, her summary of the article was well written. It was concise and easy to read. The second thing that Margot did well was her paragraph on the importance of the article. The third aspect is when she stated the strengths and weaknesses of the author.
ReplyDeleteAlthough her review was good, there were some aspects that could be improved. One thing is she could have incorporated quotes from the article. This would have made her review more sophisticated. The next thing is there were a few grammar mistakes. Fixing those would make her writing even better.
Overall, Margot did a great job on her review. I learned a lot from this article and I read her review because dolphins are one of my favorite animals. I thought it was interesting how we learned so much about both dolphins and octopus just by studying dolphin's eating habits.