Dear MARMAM colleagues, Over the years the peculiar head-standing behaviour often displayed by Risso's dolphins (/Grampus griseus/) has caught the interest of researchers and members of the public who have witnessed it. This behaviour consists of the animal standing for a period of time (varying from a few seconds to several minutes) in a vertical position with the head underwater (~ 1/3 of the body length) and the tail out of the water (~ 2/3 of the body length). With very few exceptions there is almost no information available in the literature on this behaviour other than the reporting of its existence. Various hypotheses have been suggested to try to explain the behaviour, including reaction to distress (either natural or human related), communication, resting, thermoregulation, etc. but no specific study has been carried out. We are currently collecting information about the presence/absence and frequency of the head-standing behaviour in Risso's dolphins in different areas of the world and would like to gather as much information as possible from far and wide. On behalf of my co-authors and myself, I hereby wish to ask the MARMAM community to contribute to this research by completing a simple questionnaire which we have prepared. The only requirement to contribute is that Risso's dolphins are encountered (with ANY frequency) during your activity at sea (e.g. whale-watching, land survey, etc.). The presence of the head-standing behaviour is NOT a requirement -- to the contrary, we are very interested to find out whether only certain populations display the behaviour. As we cannot attach the questionnaire to this MARMAM email, if you are interested in participating please do not hesitate to contact us (Marina Costa: marinza.costa@gmail.com <mailto:marinza.costa@gmail.com>, Elisa Remonato: e.remonato@gmail.com <mailto:e.remonato@gmail.com>)and request the questionnaire along with which we will also provide the terms of the collaboration. Many thanks in advance for your help and interest! We will keep the MARMAM community posted about any news and development of this project. My dearest wishes Marina Costa -- Marina Costa PhD Student Sea Mammal Research Unit Scottish Oceans Institute University of St Andrews St Andrews KY16 8LB Scotland mc76@st-andrews.ac.uk marinza.costa@gmail.com Skype: costa_marina