![]() ![]() In Galveston Bay, Texas, certain female bottlenose dolphins and their young follow shrimp boats. Peale’s dolphins in the Straits of Magellan off Patagonia forage in kelp beds, use the seaweed to disguise their approach and cut off the fishes’ escape route. They flick a fish up to 9 metres with their tail flukes and then pick the stunned prey from the water surface. In an estuary off the coast of Brazil, tucuxi dolphins are regularly seen capturing fish by “tail whacking”. Today, most scientists share the view that it is behaviour, not structure, that must be the measure of intelligence within a species.ĭolphins have invented a range of feeding strategies that more than match the diversity of habitats in which they live. But we don’t know enough about the workings of the brain to be sure of what these anatomical measurements truly represent. The bottlenose’s EQ is surpassed only by a human’s, which measures 7.4 (Australopithecines - hominids that lived around 4m years ago - fall within the dolphin range: 3.25-4.72). While river dolphins have an EQ of 1.5, some dolphins have EQs that are more than double those of our closest relatives: gorillas have 1.76, chimpanzees 2.48, bottlenose dolphins 5.6. Generally though, larger mammals tend to have larger brains, and so a more accurate estimate of brain power comes from the ratio of brain size to body size - the “encephalisation quotient” (EQ). Large brains are traditionally associated with greater intelligence, and the brain of the adult bottlenose dolphin is about 25% heavier than the average adult human brain. It’s difficult enough to measure in humans let alone other animals. “Intelligence” is a term with many definitions and interpretations. 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. 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. 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. It was a large bird and so the trainers gave her lots of fish. One day, when a gull flew into her pool, she grabbed it, waited for the trainers and then gave it to them. The dolphins' expert, deliberate handling of the terrorized puffer fish, Pilley told the Daily News, implies that this is not their first time at the hallucinogenic rodeo.Her cunning has not stopped there. #Dolphins use fish heads series#Zoologist and series producer Rob Pilley said that it was the first time dolphins had been filmed behaving this way.Īt one point the dolphins are seen floating just underneath the water's surface, apparently mesmerised by their own reflections. In small enough doses, however, the toxin seems to induce "a trance-like state" in dolphins that come into contact with it, the Daily News reports: The dolphins were filmed gently playing with the puffer, passing it between each other for 20 to 30 minutes at a time, unlike the fish they had caught as prey which were swiftly torn apart. Pufferfish produce a potent defensive chemical, which they eject when threatened. Footage from a new BBC documentary series, "Spy in the Pod," reveals what appears to be dolphins getting high off of pufferfish. ![]() Monkeys' attraction to sugar-rich and ethanol-containing fruit, in fact, may explain our own attraction to alcohol, some researchers think. Horses eat hallucinogenic weeds, elephants get drunk on overripe fruit and big horn sheep love narcotic lichen. Humans aren't the only creatures that suffer from substance abuse problems. ![]()
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