The Extraordinary Intelligence of Dolphins

Just found these videos on YouTube and wanted to share them with you. I know it's like 30 minutes total, but it's worth it. What the video covers is the intelligence of dolphins and…

-Covers how dolphins and humans have a relationship sometimes through fishing
-How dolphins communicate with humans
-How they communicate amongst themselves
-How they make games out of things and discover new things
-How they actually have a sense of self
-Moms communicating with their younger children, including a sort of discipline
-Creative hunting techniques!
-How they exhibit empathy

Among much more.





It's hard to deny that dolphins are amazing creatures and are likely much more intelligent than we give them credit for. Such a shame that humans are destroying their habitat over greed when we could learn a lot from them.

They can also use tools. If I recall correctly there's a family of dolphins where the females use sponges to brush the sand away on the sea floor in search of food, to me that shows incredible intelligence. It's a shame they don't have much going for them in the way of opposable thumbs.

Edit:
Here we go. It might not just be a family, and they even teach their children how to use the sponges.

reply to post by mossme89


my 2 bits: around 2000 AD i had the wonderful opportunity to watch

wood's hole marine biologists examine a dolphin "head" in our mri

scanner (at MEEI, Boston) and I saved the images to look at later

(Sadly, i've lost these scans since). The dolphin brain was virtually

IDENTICAL to the human brain. Yes there's a huge fat pad around the

blowhole and the brain is seated behind this, and the brain is elongated

more than ours - but if you took our brain and elongated it, exactly the

same sulcation, internal grey-white differentiation, limbic system, etc.

absolutely fascinating. they are us, in mental capacity.

and they don't fight wars, do drugs, or pollute the planet.

where did we go wrong?

reply to post by drphilxr


Who knows what the world would be like if they had hands.

reply to post by SpearMint


They'd be more sexually active.

Yes, their hardware is remarkably similar. I'm more interested in their software.

Most creatures are far more intelligent than we give them credit for. I suspect that our inability to recognise the intelligence of other species may indicate a shortfall in our own intelligence.

Do we know for sure that a hamster cannot feel empathy?

I've personally witnessed two pet rabbits playing some sort of game or dance. One of said rabbits also had a stuffed dog toy which it took everywhere, which indicates some kind of reasonably complex emotion, I would think.

Primates can express complex emotions and intelligence through signing.

Anyone who owns a dog doesn't even need to read this post

And yes, dolphins are smart too.

It seems that the more effort we put into understanding a given species, the more we are left to marvel " Wow they are actually a lot smarter than we thought". But until proven otherwise we label them as nothing more than dumb, limbic, souless beasts.

I'm scared of clever dolphins, ever since I was a kid and saw the episode of the simpsons where they take over the world lol.

A little off topic but I think ALL Animals are smarter than we think. I have a friend that has had a Turtle for a long time. This turtle will come to you on command. It will follow u down the hallway.

They just found two more small turtles and they are already doing the same thing as the older one. Its crazy.

I have two Goats which are almost like dogs in a way. We have freaking Chickens that know as soon as someone walks out the front door they run to the outside of the pen knowing Food is coming. Very cool and funny at the same time.

reply to post by Sinny
Just think if they had "freaken lazer beams on there heads".

reply to post by drphilxr


Are you sure it wasn't 2000 BC?

reply to post by hoochymama


The problem is that some of this isn't the intelligence we're looking for, out there, but directly involuntary reflex actions, or the side effects of a ira. If you drool for food, and food is coming, you go where it is at.

The concept for which Pavlov is famous is the "conditioned reflex" (or in his own words the conditional reflex: the translation of условный рефлекс into English is debatable) he developed jointly with his assistant Ivan Filippovitch Tolochinov in 1901.

More on it. It's not that it isn't some form of reasoning, but there's arguments that this is pretty low-level.

reply to post by CynicalDrivel
I understood that concept a long time ago until I actually had Chickens and Goats. I always thought it was involuntary but if you actually see it for your self it doesnt seem like that. I think that is the problem is we think so highly of ourselves and we have no idea how a Goat or a Chicken can communicate I think we dont really understand the actual intelligence of other species.

I am telling you right now, a Goat is almost just like a dog. A chicken, not like a dog but for sure smarter than you or I think.

If you have ever seen a dolphin in person and looked into it's eyes you would know they are smart. It doesn't have to be an over educated scientist to see intelligence in an animal.

reply to post by rickymouse
I think that also is the case for other animals as well, not just Dolphins.

Humans are not especially different from animals. For too long have we mistakenly believed ourselves to be much higher beings than animals.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

Now isn't that interesting -- the Bible contains a written record of this very belief, right in Genesis 1:28-30.

But what business have we comparing ourselves to other animals anyway? If we were really "better" than dolphins, what have we done to prove it? And if dolphins are really "better" than we, why do we not improve?

reply to post by hoochymama


I agree, some animals are smarter than others of the same kind too. Border collies seem to be good learners in the dog family and their eyes almost look human. Lots of animals and fish are very intelligent.

reply to post by rickymouse
I also have a Border Collie (I think also mixed with Australian Shepard, best of both worlds) so I can relate to that. She is the best dog I have every had and almost seems to understand my words. I tell her to watch my son and she will stay with Him. I was just at the Garden right now and there was something in our Pumpkin patch and she was trying to get it. I told my Son to stay away from that section (incase it was a snake) and told her to stay by Him, she did.

reply to post by hoochymama


I've never had a boarder collie myself. I have seen their eyes though and witnessed their intellect. There are other smart dogs too. I always seemed to get the dumb, friendly type of dogs when I had one.I guess they take after their master

reply to post by rickymouse
I have one of those as well, Part Wolf Hybrid and Malamute. But, if some other Dog or any other animal that would come on my property it would be DONE. My Border Collie and my other dog (a Mut, not sure what she is but she is smart also) are the watch dogs even though they are much smaller dogs.

Dolphins love to rape people. Don't believe me? Google dolphin rape and see what pops up. Kinda scary.