Recently, I asked you, my Awesome Readers, to ask for more information on a subject that interests you, for me to research. The question was posed in regards to history (mainly of everyday things) but it was vague enough to be open-ended. Mike Hensel gets a cookie for asking, ""Here is one for ya. Are dolphins aware of us? Do they come to the beach and say to themselves “There they are, facinating.”"The short answer, from what I've found is "yes!"
The dolphin brain is large. Relative to body size, it's the second largest only to humans. This is measured by EQ (encephalization quotient). Here are some EQs of different species:
- Teabaggers and fundamentalists: 1.2 (just kidding, sorta)
- River dolphins: 1.5
- Gorillas: 1.76
- Chimpanzees: 2.48
- Australopithecines (hominids who lived 4 million years ago): 3.25-4.72
- Bottlenose dolphins: 5.6
- Humans: 7.4
So, let's run through some of their amazing abilities:
- Complex play
- Problem solving
- Communicating with each other through whistles, clicks, touch and body postures. But we don't know if it's a language by human definition.
- Reading: they can read a symbol printed on a card and then do what it says.
- Self Awareness: they can recognize themselves in a mirror. If a mark is placed on their skin (with a nontoxic marker), they will go to the mirror to look at it and spend more time than if they have no marks. (elephants will do the same. They will touch the mark on their head, while they look in the mirror. Great apes as well)
- They can think through and plan ahead. see video below and Guardian article for examples)
