Why dolphins are deep thinkers

givemesomethingtoread:

One day, when a gull flew into her pool, she grabbed it, waited for the trainers and then gave it to them. It was a large bird and so the trainers gave her lots of fish. This seemed to give Kelly a new idea. The next time she was fed, instead of eating the last fish, she took it to the bottom of the pool and hid it under the rock where she had been hiding the paper. When no trainers were present, she brought the fish to the surface and used it to lure the gulls, which she would catch to get even more fish. After mastering this lucrative strategy, she taught her calf, who taught other calves, and so gull-baiting has become a hot game among the dolphins.

Wait a minute: Dolphins understand the concept of investing?!?!?

Some species have a signature whistle, which, like a name, is a unique sound that allows other dolphins to identify it.

I wonder if all dolphins claim to be terrible at remembering signature whistles.

Diana Reiss and her researchers installed mirrors inside New York Aquarium to test whether two bottlenose dolphins were self-aware enough to recognise their reflections. They placed markings in non-toxic black ink on various places of the dolphins’ bodies. The dolphins swam to the mirror and exposed the black mark to check it out. They spent more time in front of the mirror after being marked than when they were not marked.

They should have offered “skinny mirrors” and “fat mirrors” and tested for a preference to see if the dolphins have body image issues.

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