Wildlife & Railway Art - Frédérique Lucas

Two species of bottlenose dolphin in Eastern Australia

These are two older illustrations I recently revamped. I really like how they turned out so I decided to make a little infographic. The distribution and ecological interaction between these two species is very interesting. In many places, two types of Common bottlenose dolphin exist:

• The coastal / inshore type, which inhabits small ranges in (very) shallow water • The oceanic / offshore type, which inhabits very large ranges in deep water

The oceanic type can appear quite close to shore in places where the seafloor quickly drops (here the coastal type is often absent), but in most areas with extended shallows the coastal type will make its home. However, once you enter the range of the Indo-pacific bottlenose dolphin, the coastal type disappears. Indo-pacific bottlenoses completely fill their coastal niche, and only oceanic-type Common bottlenoses remain. This situation is very noticeable in Australia, which these illustrations are based on.

It’s interesting to note though that coastal Common bottlenose dolphins from warmer waters can look incredibly similar to Indo-pacific bottlenoses: including a longer beak, large fins and spotted undersides (which are usually seen as Indo-pacific-specific traits). Curiously, spotting is actually absent on Indo-pacific bottlenose dolphins from the southern half of Australia.

Underground

A while ago I had a dream about accidentally stumbling upon an underground facility. It was the secret hideout of a passionate aquarist who had recently passed away. Married life had forced her to keep only a couple of aquariums indoors, but she’d always wanted more. Hence this place; it held dozens of tanks, ranging from small ones with shoals of little fish, to enormous ones where 4-metre long arapaimas lurked. All was dark and gloomy, but one tank shone blue in the darkness. And in there hung a common dolphin, quietly staring up at the surface as bright light caustics danced on her skin.

I have tried to portray what I saw in my dream, in which I only partially succeeded. I know the dolphin doesn’t look very ‘real’, but that’s how she was - she looked more like a textbook illustration come to life than a real physical animal. Stranger still, I recognised her as one of @uselessmachine‘s characters, Aura. I find it intriguing what elaborate stories and worlds we can construct in our dreams.