Angela Ziltener — The Life and Work of a Dolphin Scientist

Angela's Journey

A life spent in the water, watching.

Angela Ziltener is a wildlife biologist at the University of Zurich and the founder of the Dolphin Watch Alliance. Since 2009 she has led one of the world's few long-term underwater studies of wild Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, in the northern Red Sea — returning, year after year, to the same dolphin communities. Over a thousand research dives later, they know her. And she knows them: by name, by fin, by family.

Becoming a Scientist

The academic path, the turning points, and the first expeditions that led a Swiss biologist to a reef in Egypt — and to a question that would take decades to answer.

Life in the Field

Years of daily fieldwork: reading the sea, earning the trust of wild animals, and the unglamorous logistics that make underwater science possible.

Long-Term Commitment

Why long-duration observation matters. Following the same individuals across generations builds knowledge no expedition can capture.

Philosophy & Ethics

Observation in the water, on the animals' terms. Respect for wild dolphins is not a sentiment — it is a scientific method.

The Research

Decades of disciplined observation.

The science is what separates understanding from anecdote. Angela's work with the Dolphin Watch Alliance documents how Red Sea dolphins live — where they rest, how they raise their young, and what human presence does to both.

Research by Angela & DWA

Habitat selection

Which reefs dolphins choose to rest in — and why protecting those places matters more than protecting any others.

Photo identification

Every dorsal fin is a fingerprint. Long-term ID work makes individual life stories — and population health — visible.

Entanglement injuries

Documenting the rising toll of discarded fishing gear on calves and juveniles in the northern Red Sea.

Behaviour: rest, mating & self-medication

Diurnal activity patterns, sleeping behaviour — and the discovery that dolphins queue up to rub against selected corals with medicinal properties.

What we know about dolphins

Communication

Signature whistles, acoustic behaviour and recognition systems — how dolphins call each other by name.

Dolphin society

Male alliances, mothers and calves, social structure: a society sophisticated enough to deserve the word.

Human–dolphin relations

Misconceptions, tourism pressure, and what respectful encounters actually look like. Read the Code of Conduct →

Angela Ziltener documenting a dolphin group underwater

Fieldwork & Expeditions

Science that happens at sea.

Underwater observation is slow, physical, weather-dependent work. Every data point is a dive; every dive is fuel, boats, permits and daylight. This is the reality of long-term marine science — and it runs on the support of people who believe it matters.

Fieldwork and expeditions are made possible by donors and research patrons. Support the next expedition →

Angela Ziltener at work over a Red Sea reef

Stories From the Dolphins

Individuals. Families. Generations.

Behind every dataset are animals Angela has known for years — some since the day they were born. Each story here is anchored in scientific observation, told from the water.

Trust

Sefa

Some dolphins tolerate an observer. A few, over years, choose closeness. Sefa's story is what long-term presence in the water makes possible — and why it can never be rushed.

Mothers & Calves

The nursery reefs

Where mothers bring their newborns to rest — and what happens to a calf's chances when those sheltered bays fill with boats.

Society

The alliance

Male bottlenose dolphins form bonds that last decades. Following one alliance across the years reveals a social world of loyalty, negotiation and play.

Media

In the press, on screen, on stage.

Angela's research has been covered by international media and scientific press worldwide — from the dolphins' use of medicinal corals to the fight for protected resting bays.

Interviews & documentaries

Selected film appearances, podcasts and interviews about three decades of dolphin research.

Media requests →

Speaking

Keynotes and talks for schools, companies, destinations and scientific audiences.

Invite Angela to speak →

Media packages

Downloadable press material: biography, portraits and licensed dolphin photography.

Request the media kit →

Scientific Publications

Selected key findings.

2022

Self-medication behaviour in Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins

Dolphins queue to rub against selected corals whose mucus carries bioactive properties — published in iScience, covered by media worldwide.

2020s

Entanglement injuries in the northern Red Sea

Documenting rising fatal fluke entanglements with discarded fishing gear — with juveniles and calves most affected.

Ongoing

Tourism pressure and reproductive success

Long-term data on how unregulated dolphin tourism affects rest, behaviour and calf survival.

Legacy

The Hurghada protection zone

DWA's data helped establish the first protected resting area for Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins in the Hurghada region.

Conservation & Education

Knowing better means behaving better.

Ethical wildlife encounters are learned. Angela and the Dolphin Watch Alliance train guides, brief tourists, and teach children what respectful behaviour around wild dolphins looks like — so the animals can keep doing the one thing they need the reefs for: rest.

Download the Code of Conduct Book an educational workshop

Support the Research

Long-term science needs long-term friends.

Every insight on this site exists because someone funded a boat, a permit, a dive. Supporting Angela's work means supporting continuous scientific observation — the kind that cannot be paused and restarted.

Adopt a dolphin

Support the long-term monitoring of an individual dolphin Angela's team has followed for years — and follow their story.

Adopt now

Become a friend

Monthly support provides the stable funding that long-term research depends on.

Join monthly

Sponsor an expedition

For companies and philanthropists: fund fieldwork or conservation directly, with recognition and reporting.

Talk to us

Angela's research and conservation work runs through the Dolphin Watch Alliance, the Swiss non-profit she founded in 2011. Donations are used directly for research and conservation projects.

For more than three decades, Angela Ziltener has dedicated her life to understanding wild dolphins.