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Has dolphin intelligence been exaggerated ?


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New research has suggested that dolphins may not be any more intelligent than most other animals.

Long considered to be one of the most intelligent species on the planet, dolphins have received a great deal of attention for their playful nature and seemingly human-like behavior. But are these aquatic mammals genuinely clever or has this perception emerged due to decades of bias ?

Read More: http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/254377/has-dolphin-intelligence-been-exaggerated

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The dolphin is the only marine animal that kills for fun. If you ask me only a intelligence being can kill for fun.

The smarter we are the wicket we are!

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It's the smiley, friendly expression that does it.

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If we continue to anthropomorphize intelligence, or measure it as an attribute of human form and function, then we fail to realize the dolphin, or many other species, have evolved an amazing intelligence to perfectly cope within their environments and succeed as a species. They have further done this without destroying the environment in which they live. Can we say the same about humans?

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Well put highdesert50,it actually almost matches what a dolphin said to me about human intellect.

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Dolphins are smart - just like many other animals (crows, pigs, dogs, cats, monkeys, and the list is even longer). But we should stop mystifying them. They are not the wonder creatures, who do no harm and are only happy and playful, that some of us want them to be.

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Be nice to me.

I kill for fun, have sex for pleasure and I can use the Internet.

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I have heard that dolphins will rescue a drowning human. Is this not correct? If so, they are very intelligent because this shows they have compassion concerning the well-being of other creatures.

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The dolphin is the only marine animal that kills for fun. If you ask me only a intelligence being can kill for fun.

The smarter we are the wicket we are!

Big deal, that's no indication of intelligence. My cat kills for fun and it's dumb as a brick. So do many species of cats and also members of the weasel family such as otters.

Carnivores in general are smarter than herbivores; it takes some intelligence to catch something that doesn't want to be eaten. We humans tend to apply human traits to animals: we like warm and fuzzy, smiley and talkative, beautiful and motherly. Those animals that don't fit our stereotypical ideal are often relegated to a less-desirable status. Based on a series of tests, an octopus might actually be more intelligent than a dolphin, but it lacks the human-like smile and the warm blood and in the minds of many it has a bit of an "ick" factor. Dolphins are certainly trainable, but it's difficult to quantify what is going on inside the head of another type of organism, or other humans for that matter.

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I have heard that dolphins will rescue a drowning human. Is this not correct? If so, they are very intelligent because this shows they have compassion concerning the well-being of other creatures.

This is true in some rescue cases regarding humans.

Dolphins have even been known to actually swarm and surround to protect a human from shark attack.

Why this is so I don't know, but is well documented. Doesn't happen often, and the human has to be in the right place at the right time, so-to-speak. And, not all dolphins, even of the the same species, exhibit this unusual "rescue" behavior with humans.

One "theory" is that dolphins are especially protective of human females, though human males have also been "dolphin assisted"

A curious creature to be sure.

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Justin Gregg must be a lone voice. Dolphins have proven their intellect over and over. I think this Human has a hard time believing something other than a human has a higher, or more evolved intellect than himself, I wouldn't be surprised if he is a Christian. A dolphin can recognize a particular signature call of another dolphin even if they haven't heard that dolphin for many many years and after only hearing it once, they have a very long memory. And yes there have been many documented cases of dolphins saving Humans from shark attack, or saving Humans from drowning. A well known case of recent years was a Male human.

I'm surprised an article like this got published tbh.

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who are we to judge intelligence. we ruin the world, kill at will, claim religion, pretty much do everything against nature and still claim we are superior. some people believe dolphins are dumb. how easy would it to act dumb if you could communicate and no one even knew what you where saying or meant. the world is full of mysteries. i wouldn't count them out.

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I'm sure some have over-exaggerated dolphin intelligence, and others have undervalued it. That they are smart is so obvious it goes without saying, but then dogs and cats and certainly most primates are also smart, compared, for example, to something like a domestic cow.

(For really stupid I give you the domesticated turkey, for smart, or at least tricky, I give you the wild turkey).

We have been trying all my life to find a way to talk to dolphins, and have not succeeded. It would appear they communicate with each other but it is not something analogous to language but probably more like the shape of their body parts (which they can see using sonar). It is doubtful their communication is either as efficient or as deep as human speech, but we can't really say.

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I don't beelive in it much.Dolphins are one of the intelligent animals and sure it is few of the most intelligent marine animals.My favorites are Elephants and indeed they are very intelligent..

This is true in some rescue cases regarding humans.

Dolphins have even been known to actually swarm and surround to protect a human from shark attack.

Why this is so I don't know, but is well documented. Doesn't happen often, and the human has to be in the right place at the right time, so-to-speak. And, not all dolphins, even of the the same species, exhibit this unusual "rescue" behavior with humans.

That is impressive.

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This is true in some rescue cases regarding humans.

Dolphins have even been known to actually swarm and surround to protect a human from shark attack.

Why this is so I don't know, but is well documented. Doesn't happen often, and the human has to be in the right place at the right time, so-to-speak. And, not all dolphins, even of the the same species, exhibit this unusual "rescue" behavior with humans.

One "theory" is that dolphins are especially protective of human females, though human males have also been "dolphin assisted"

A curious creature to be sure.

They are curious, yes. And thus we do not know if they really willingly rescue humans, or if this is only playful behaviour. The latter seems more reasonable to me.

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They are curious, yes. And thus we do not know if they really willingly rescue humans, or if this is only playful behaviour. The latter seems more reasonable to me.

Perhaps they can "sense" that a human needs air to breath, like theirselves, and can probably tell if a drowning human is in "distress", thus nudging him or her to the surface and, as also documented, even allowing the humas to "hold-on" and swim directly towards the shore or a nearby boat.

Just speculating the dolphins intent, of course, but these cases have been authenticated.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Dolphins are smart - just like many other animals (crows, pigs, dogs, cats, monkeys, and the list is even longer). But we should stop mystifying them. They are not the wonder creatures, who do no harm and are only happy and playful, that some of us want them to be.

I agree completely. There is nothing special or mystical about any creature including humans.

When I was a member of a Wiccan site I subtly brought up this very issue and gave a few examples including watching a male lion, who wanted to take over a pride, hunt down the babies then sit down to casually rip them apart or dolphins that will gang up on a baby -in another example- and bash into it over and over until it hemorrhages or worse.

In that case I was told that the dolphins mystically "knew" something was wrong with it so that is why they killed it.

I called BS on it all. We love to anthropomorphize animals we like, such as dolphins, wolves, foxes or whatever is currently popular, giving it this air of "magic" or mystery.

They're just animals; intelligent in their own way but nothing special.

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