Dolphins are often considered the second or third most intelligent animals after man. Research has yielded tons of information about its life, its social structure, and its development. Their sense of echolocation has fascinated scientists, who do not hesitate to study it to apply the same mechanism to technologies that facilitate human life and help to fulfill special purposes. But is this all that we can learn from dolphins?

Of course not. These amazing, intelligent mammals have some lessons to teach humans, lessons whose application represents a benefit in the personal and social life of man, now more concerned with the achievement of his work goals and individual recognition.

Close social bonds are better than a lonely life.
Dolphins maintain very close ties with their pod companions. They are highly sociable and do not hesitate to help each other. They are even able to remember many years after they last saw each other and aid to survive those who are sick. When humans imitate this behavior, it improves their mood, reduces stress and increases their chances of survival.

Dolphins are considered the second or third most intelligent animals after man.

Empathy is good.

Dolphins understand when a dolphin or a human being are vulnerable to some danger, and that is why they are believed to have come to the rescue. They do not just leave those who need help. Would not be wonderful if people always did the same? Empathy in humans, besides, allows the understanding of different ideas, tolerance, and respect.

Teamwork is power.

Most of these cetaceans cooperate to find food, care for the young and protect each other. Humans try most of the time exclusively their well-being, but working together with others, is a good way to increase everyone’s success and improve living conditions.

Creativity is important.

Dolphins have found ways to solve some difficulties, as many tests show: they use sponges to protect themselves from rough surfaces, mimic human movements and even communicate through a varied repertoire of sounds. If they can, anyone else can and not just the researchers.

Live without damaging the environment.

This aspect is perhaps the most important since our environment is degrading as people become unaware of their implications on Earth and their responsibilities in it. Dolphins live in an aquatic environment from which they use resources for their means, but do not cause damage. They use what they need.

LEARNING APPLIED TO TECHNOLOGY

The scientific and technological areas are the ones that have benefited most from all the information acquired from dolphins. Current trends focus on the application of echolocation both in technology and in people’s daily life for impaired people and in developing methods for protecting other species. It seems that too much is known, but the truth is that much remains to be discovered and to be learned yet, that is why scientists continue studying them.

EVEN MORE LEARNING FROM DOLPHINS

While dolphin research is still in its infancy, the wealth of information that we may one day glean from these magnificent creatures is unimaginable. One lesson that we can learn from them, however, could be a key to the survival of our civilization. In today’s hectic world, the dolphin community may just offer a few lessons that we should take the time to learn.

There’s a saying in our culture that suggests “it takes a village to raise a child.” In earlier times, our society often reflected this concept. Today, however, morals and values are almost nonexistent, and technology continues to contribute to the breakdown of our families, communities and our society as a whole. Dolphins, however, are cooperative and playful. Their communities or pods persist under dangerous conditions only because of the bonds and support the members offer to one another. In the world of the dolphin, members care for and protect each other. Dolphins are creatures of socialization just as we are.

As human beings, maybe it’s time that we take a look back at how we have evolved and consider instead returning to the way of the dolphin, rather than spreading farther and farther from each other, the answer to our problems is perhaps instead, to come closer. The pod concept that protects dolphins could very well be the ideal that could protect our families and our communities.

There is, in fact, a society that is seriously contemplating the concept of pod living. The Sirius Institute, in Hawaii, has developed a model human society based on pod living. According to their website, Sirius believes that the pod prototype can help us “restore our currently fragmented society,” living in a way that provides an environment where “humans can belong to something bigger than themselves and stand out for who they are and the contributions they make,” instead of what they possess.

The Sirius Pod model allows people to interact within their homes, neighborhoods and in some cases, worlds. The children living in this environment are raised together, very similar to the way dolphins raise their young. Sirius believes that their pod models are “islands of stability” where people can come together to grow and prosper.

While the Sirius model may seem a little vague and sounds very much like the lifestyle we already think we’re living, it would be a positive thing for each and every one of us to stop and consider what the important things are and why we’ve let them fall by the wayside.

If we can learn anything from dolphins, it could just very well be that we need to refocus our attention on how we’re living our lives and why.

Dolphins continue surviving against increasing odds. The intelligence level that these animals display and their ability to interact not only with their peer but to also in harmony with others is a lesson we should all learn.

When the man appeared on Earth, dolphins had been inhabiting the oceans for thousands of years. Naturally, humans began to interact with other creatures in their environment including dolphins, laying the foundations of a relationship that has endured until today but with different forms of interaction.

In other words, man’s relationship with dolphins goes far beyond observation and occasional contact. It involves close interactions, associations and even scientific studies that try to unravel the secrets of an animal that has been considered one of the most intelligent in the world.

Formerly, relationships with dolphins were in their natural habitat, but now, with technological advances, humans have the power to keep them captive in environments similar to their habitats. However, advanced research always tries to observe animals in the wild as their behavior changes when they are in captivity.

Repeated observations proved that dolphins usually approach pregnant women carefully, as they hear the beating of two hearts.

The relationships between dolphins and humans can be fascinating, and they can occur both in the wild and in captivity. In the wild, some dolphins have been seen rounding up schools of fish to indicate to the fishermen where to place their nets. There are also amazing stories of dolphins coming to the rescue of divers or boaters that have experienced troubles.

In captivity, the continuous interaction between dolphins and humans for training or research or the contact for physical and emotional therapy create strong bonds with the dolphins.

RELATIONSHIP WITH DOLPHINS IN THE WILD

It seems that the human connection with dolphins dates back far into ancient times as there are plenty of markings and old artwork that depict these animals. Some civilizations believed to be a spiritual connection between the gods and humans.

The frescos of dolphins in the palace of the ancient city of Knossos in Crete give us an idea of ​​the familiarity between this species and the Islanders. Many species of dolphins are now believed to capture their food in association with fishers: they may follow dolphins to catch fish of a particular species, or even dolphins show them where to lay their nets to find some marine animals.

Some people claim that dolphins have rescued divers or swimmers who are in trouble by helping them to reach the surface, just as they do with their injured mates. On the Internet, there is a recent video where you can see how a dolphin, trapped in a net, seems to “ask” for help to a Scuba diver to get free.

In 2013, a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) was stranded on the coast of Australia and was assisted to return to the sea, but now the dolphin has been seen approaching the swimmers and playing with them. People does not show fear to Dolphins as they have a reputation for being friendly, charming and benevolent with humans. However, there are differences between the dolphins that are in captivity and those in the wild, since their encounters with people are occasional.

RELATIONSHIP WITH DOLPHINS IN CAPTIVITY

There are multiple reasons to keep dolphins in captivity, according to humans. These dolphins live day-to-day with people either in water parks, aquariums, reserves or similar places. At water parks, they are trained to perform several acrobatic tricks that use their natural ability for the enjoyment of an audience that goes to see them in a show or to swim with them.

At present, the so-called dolphin-assisted therapy, a type of treatment that uses animals as a therapist for people with some physical or emotional condition, is in vogue, under the argument that the relationship is beneficial for the health improvement of the patient.

Other human interactions with dolphins are frequent during the observation or research of populations in the wild or specimens in captivity. These studies, investigations, and experiments that have provided lots of information about the life of dolphins have been carried out in both scenarios with a varying degree of success. Among them, the studies to test their intelligence, performed using simple but ingenious experiments, have excelled.

In addition to the above, did you know that dolphins are part of the armed forces? Despite being a questionable activity, it is a fact that some armies train animals for some military purposes such as rescuing injured or trapped people.

We should not forget that one of the factors of the popularity of dolphins is due to the numerous times that they have appeared in cinema and television.

WHY DOLPHINS DEMONSTRATE GREATER TOLERANCE TO HUMANS THAN OTHER AQUATIC SPECIES?

Some people believe that dolphins have a particular predilection for humans given the continually positive interactions between them. They have rarely attacked a person. Instead, they have helped them often. The truth is that there is nothing to indicate that dolphins feel a particular empathy for the man since they have a highly developed social behavior and they behave the same way with other animals.

A study from the University of Kyoto (Japan) states that dolphins can see the world and solve problems in a similar way than humans do, so their feelings, so to speak, could also be analogous to that of the human species. The echolocation allows dolphins to know that a human is a living being and to understand when he is in trouble and when he need protection. That is why they usually approach pregnant women carefully since they hear the beating hearts of two persons.

DANGERS OF HUMAN-DOLPHIN INTERACTION

We must consider that although not usually aggressive, dolphins are not domesticated animals, and even if they were, they are as unpredictable as any other wild animal. On the other hand, there are some inherent dangers if we do not respect the distance between them and us, because of dolphins, like men, are sensitive and tend to suffer from stress, illness, and other diseases if the human being abuses its power.

Even though there is usually nothing but harmony when dolphins and humans interact, that isn’t always the outcome. Dolphins can be very aggressive if feel threatened or stressed or when other members of their pod are in danger. One strange incident was the attack in 2010 at SeaWorld by a dolphin, an orca called Tilikum, killing its trainer, Dawn Brancheau.

In 1994, a man in Brazil died when a Bottlenose Dolphin attacked him. Some believe that people continually harassed this dolphin, but nobody knows if it was the case at the time of the incident. Therefore, many experts though do caution people to be aware of what dolphins can do both in the wild and in captivity.

References

Diana Reiss. The Dolphin in the Mirror: Exploring Dolphin Minds and Saving Dolphin Lives. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011.

Karl Erik Fichtelius, Sverre Sjölander. Smarter Than Man?: Intelligence in Whales, Dolphins, and Humans. Pantheon Books, 1972.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/30/dolphins-like-humans-persecuting-orcas-culture-cull

Dolphins are active predators that have a carnivorous diet. Their eating habits are flexible so that they can adapt perfectly to the habitat where they live.

Although they have small teeth, they do not use them to chew the food but only to hold the prey. What they do is, once the prey is in their control firmly hold by those teeth, they swallow it whole starting with the head. If the prey is a large animal, then they tear it by shaking or crushing their body so that it breaks into smaller pieces.

The stomach of these cetaceans has several compartments that make digestion a quick process. The daily total food intake varies according to the species, but they do not feed abundantly. For example, a bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) consumes between 4 and 5 percent of its weight per day.

Dolphins spend plenty of time finding food every day, and some species can consume up to 30 pounds of fish per day as adults. They migrate and move long distances to find food, although if they have enough supply where they reside, and the temperature of the water is also acceptable, they probably won’t migrate.

Dolphins do not use their teeth to chew the food but only to hold the prey.

FAVORITE PREY

They consume a variety of bony fish, crustaceans, and cephalopods. Individuals living near the coast regularly feed on fish and benthic invertebrates, while those who stay in high seas prefer to eat squid and fish as well.

Specifically, their favorite prey includes:
– Atlantic mackerel
– Herring
– Mullet
– Cod
– Squid
– Octopus
– Shrimp

Orcas (Orcinus orca) are a separate case because their diet includes more than small fish. They are used to hunt other marine mammals such as walruses, sea lions, and seals, as well as penguins, sea birds, and even small baleen whales.

Some reports indicate that deep-sea fish remains have been found in the stomach of some dolphins, pointing out that they may be able to dive up to 500 meters deep to search for food.

HUNTING METHODS

Dolphins use various strategies to catch their food, but they are usually related to group hunting:

HERDING.

When a pod of these cetaceans locates a school of fish large enough, they start to surround their prey to reduce the area of ​​dispersion. Imagine a compact group of thousands of fish going from side to side to avoid a set of predators. When the prey is already disoriented, the dolphins take turns entering the fish school from below and begin feeding themselves. Some others stay on the outer perimeter to avoid the fish to disperse.

Herding is one of the most common methods of feeding that they use; This involves a pod working as a unit to get a school of fish to curl up into a tight ball. Then, they take turns to rush through and plow the center of that ball, eating all they can in the process.

CORRALING.

Other times, a pod goes to the coasts or the sandbanks to facilitate their task as these areas offer a great variety of fish and it is easier to catch them. Dolphins sometimes corral fish in shallow waters so they cannot escape.

Dolphins learned to feed following fishing vessels. Bottlenose dolphins are the species that practices this more often, and it involves following trawl nets to feed on discarded fish and or those thrown back into the water by the fishers.

They do not always hunt in groups. If necessary, dolphins also look for food individually. Orcas and other species herd their prey to the coasts or places where they will not escape and sometimes wait patiently until the victim makes a mistake and can catch them. There are some videos of orcas practically getting half of their body on the sand to the catch seals that feel safe in the seashore, in a move that has to be perfectly coordinated with the ocean waves.

Sometimes dolphins beat the prey with their tails until they come out of the water and they catch them in the air with their mouths.

Recently a particular behavior was discovered in bottlenose dolphins that inhabit the west of Australia: when looking for food in rocky areas, females protect their snout using a marine sponge; Just when they intend to swallow the prey they release the sponge and eat. This unusual but sophisticated behavior is exclusive to females and their offspring.

OTHER DOLPHIN FEEDING METHODS.

The concept of cooperative feeding involves driving the schools of fish to the shallow areas of the water. Sometimes, this is to the coast, or it could be to some natural barrier or even a subgroup of the dolphins making such function. Other species drive prey into muddy banks so that they can simply catch them.

There are certain species of dolphins that use their flukes to stun their prey hitting them, and while the victims are still disoriented, they will feed on them.

What is fascinating too is that in some locations the dolphins have learned to help the fishermen drive the fish into their nets. The payoff for dolphins is that they get to feed on the leftover fish that get out of the nets.

Large pods use circular cooperative feeding. They divide into subgroups and then form circles surrounding schools of fish this way and continue to reduce the overall size of that circle before they take part in consuming them.

Something very similar is the crossing cooperative feeding; This involves dolphins moving in a cross pattern with groups of them swimming in different directions, allowing the fish to be in the middle of the routes that dolphins have created. Such strategy is usually a good one to use around rocky shores and in shallow areas of small bays.

Dolphins are intelligent, so they have the option to create different methods that fit their feeding needs. They have been seen mixing two or more of the mentioned feeding strategies into one session to get results. The ability to create such variations with ease and to build new formations is fascinating. The level of cooperation it takes among the dolphins in the pod is also noted.

FEEDING DOLPHINS?

When meeting dolphins, either in aquariums or in areas that these cetaceans visit, humans can provide them with food, but this action is not good for them.

Researchers point out that the fact that dolphins get quickly accustomed to being fed causing them to lose their natural hunting ability. If you visit an area with ​​dolphins, do not feed them!

References

bioexpedition.com/dolphin-feeding/

Animals, a visual encyclopedia. Smithsonian. Dorling Kindersley, 2012.

Alan Rauch. Dolphin. Reaktion Books, 2013

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin#Feeding

]]> https://www.dolphins-world.com/second-in-intelligence/ Wed, 23 Apr 2014 19:39:17 +0000 http://www.dolphins-world.com/?p=2073 Are Dolphins #2 in the World when it comes to Intelligence?

There have been plenty of studies on intelligence of people and animals over time. What some of this research is indicating is that dolphins rank #2 – behind only humans. This information is based on MRI scans of the brain that indicate they do have a high level of self-awareness. What is also interesting is that the brain of dolphins could prove to be quite vulnerable to traumatic experiences and suffering, just like humans.

Studies that have been done to determine overall brain power put humans as #1 and dolphins as #2. New research has been able to show that dolphins do have skills and forms of awareness that were once thought to be unique to only humans. The information determined from MRI scans also shows that the brain of a dolphin is about 4 or 5 times larger than it should be based on their body size.

This information is based on comparisons to other animals that are close to the same size. One of the leading experts in the world on dolphins is Lori Mario who is a Senior lecturer at Emory University in the area of Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology. She has done many MRI scans on dolphins. She also believes that using the brain to body ratio formula that dolphins would indeed by behind humans.

The findings of such studies have been presented by Marino in various capacities, including at the American Association for Advancement of Science. She does state that size is only one factor but that there is plenty of other data to support the claims about dolphin intelligence. The neocortex is the part of the brain that allows for higher levels of thinking to take place. This is also where emotional information can be expanded for dolphins.

There are studies on dolphin behavior that Marino and other experts have conducted that show these animals often can exhibit skills similar to humans. For example, being able to recognize themselves in a mirror. They are also able to identify abstract concepts, learn symbol based communication programs, and they also take part in cultural learning based on the group they belong to.

This information is why Marino doesn’t feel it is a good idea for marine parks to take part in teaching dolphins to perform or having them involved in dolphin assisted therapy. She and some other experts believe it could be harmful on a psychological level to them. They also worry it could give humans a false interpretation about the intellectual abilities of dolphins.

This information stems from the fact that when a person or an animal is highly aware of their circumstances they notice the differences between a good situation and a bad one. Negative feelings can occur for the dolphins due to them not being able to continue in a natural setting versus being in captivity.

The emotional elements of dolphins are very high, much like humans. There have been reports of dolphins becoming so upset during herding by boats that they can die of a heart attack. They can also die from exhausting due to their instinctive nature to flee from the situation. Those that are captured and then transported to captivity facilities can suffer a great deal of emotional trauma.

Diana Reiss, a Professor of at Hunter College in the area of Psychology also believes that Marino’s data and conclusions are solid. She plans on presenting similar information and to support this information about dolphins in an effort to make people more aware. Not only of their intelligence, but also of their emotional processes. 

Source: http://news.discovery.com/animals/dolphins-smarter-brain-function.html

Commercial fishing can be a risky business, but not when you have the right members on your team! In some locations, fishermen are getting help from self-trained Bottlenose Dolphins! This is a winning outcome for the dolphins as well as for the fishermen that are reaping such rewards. What is really interesting in this study in Brazil is that the dolphins were never formally trained for such an outcome.

What has occurred is that the dolphins are successful with getting the fish into a central location. Then they send out signals to the fishermen that inform them where they should drop their nets to catch the fish. It is very evident the social and cooperation skills of these dolphins are extremely well developed.

Additional research on these dolphins also shows they are extremely social and cooperative within the group. This is based on information that has been published in the Royal Society Biology Letters if you are interested in finding out more. It is believed that these factors help to explain why some of the dolphins in the wild do help humans and other don’t take part in it.

The behaviors are well synchronized and fishermen have been able to rely on those signals. They often include tail or head slaps in the water in given locations. The fishermen are able to quickly put their nets in the right place. This allows them to get the fish instead of guessing where to put the nets and hoping for the best. Such information has been observed and documented by Fabio Daura-Jorge of the Federal University of Santa Catarina.

Along with several colleagues, he has been able to see the outcome of such experiences. So what is in it for the dolphins? They get to dine on the fish that find their way out of the nets. They are patient and wait for that moment to arrive. Such observations were noted by Daura-Jorge and his team through boating surveys that took place over the course of a 2 year period.

They used photos to identify the dolphins. This allowed them to classify the groups as cooperative or non-cooperative based on their interactions or lack of interactions with the fishermen. The use of computer modeling allowed for the social relationships among the dolphins to be successfully identified.

What was found is that those dolphins that were cooperative spent far more time with each other, even when they weren’t participating in activities that helped the fishermen. It is believed that there are many factors at work here that determine if a relationship will occur naturally between humans and dolphins. They include genetics, social learning, and ecology. 

It is believed that information transferred from one generation of the dolphins to the next is very important here. The older dolphins teach the younger ones to be able to successfully help the fishermen. There have been numerous documentations about such behaviors within groups of dolphins in various areas. One that is widely discussed is the process of sponging by the dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia. If you aren’t familiar with sponging, it is the process of these Bottlenose Dolphins tearing pieces of sponges and covering their snout with them while they forage for food. This protects them from damages to that part of the body. 

There are plenty of unique behaviors identified within dolphin groups, and their intelligence level is believed to be a big part of them. According to Lori Marino from Emory University, the size of the dolphin’s brain should be used to help measure their intelligence. She and many others believe the dolphin ranks #2 – right being humans.

Source: http://news.discovery.com/animals/helpful-dolphins-120502.html

Dolphins are relevant to humans because we are still looking and researching our origins in the animal kingdom. There are similarities between dolphins and humans that do not exist with apes.

Also, dolphins act as ecological indicators which mean that they are bio-indicators on the condition of the marine environment and thanks to their behavior and health, we can detect and prevent some problems in the ocean biome, such as pollution or diseases that are expanding to populations of fish.

Likewise, they are predatory animals of various types of fish and marine animals, which contributes to the optimal function of the food chain where they inhabit. All these reasons directly affect humans, since a healthy ocean is synonymous with life on the planet.

Dolphins are famous among people because they are graceful and beautiful creatures. Their incredible performance while jumping in the ocean and their friendly face have made people like dolphins.

However, probably the most attractive feature that has made dolphins very appealing to humans is their intelligence which has no equal in the animal world.

Dolphins communicate through a language that includes sounds with different purposes, as humans do, as well as samples of behaviors related to pleasure, fun, teaching and social coexistence. That is why some have insisted on considering them “non-human people,” which gives them a little more “special” treatment.