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Big_Bird
Joined: 31 Jan 2003
Location: Sometimes here sometimes there...
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 Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 1:34 am Post subject: Why Dolphins are Deep Thinkers |
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The more we study dolphins, the brighter they turn out to be
This is a fascinating article on Dolphins. I've quoted just a few snippets:
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By human definition, there is currently no evidence that dolphins have a language. But we've barely begun to record all their sounds and body signals let alone try to decipher them. At Kewalo Basin Marine Laboratory in Hawaii, Lou Herman and his team set about testing a dolphin's ability to comprehend our language. They developed a sign language to communicate with the dolphins, and the results were remarkable. Not only do the dolphins understand the meaning of individual words, they also understand the significance of word order in a sentence. (One of their star dolphins, Akeakamai, has learned a vocabulary of more than 60 words and can understand more than 2,000 sentences.) Particularly impressive is the dolphins' relaxed attitude when new sentences are introduced. For example, the dolphins generally responded correctly to "touch the frisbee with your tail and then jump over it". This has the characteristics of true understanding, not rigid training.
Lou Herman and Adam Pack taught the dolphins two further signals. One they called "repeat" and the other "different", which called for a change from the current behaviour. The dolphins responded correctly. |
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dolphin's ability to invent novel behaviours was put to the test in a famous experiment by the renowned dolphin expert Karen Pryor. Two rough-toothed dolphins were rewarded whenever they came up with a new behaviour. It took just a few trials for both dolphins to realise what was required. A similar trial was set up with humans. The humans took about as long to realise what they were being trained to do as did the dolphins. For both the dolphins and the humans, there was a period of frustration (even anger, in the humans) before they "caught on". Once they figured it out, the humans expressed great relief, whereas the dolphins raced around the tank excitedly, displaying more and more novel behaviours.
Dolphins are quick learners. Calves stay with their mothers for several years, allowing the time and opportunity for extensive learning to take place, particularly through imitation. At a dolphinarium, a person standing by the pool's window noticed that a dolphin calf was watching him. When he released a puff of smoke from his cigarette, the dolphin immediately swam off to her mother, returned and released a mouthful of milk, causing a similar effect to the cigarette smoke. Another dolphin mimicked the scraping of the pool's observation window by a diver, even copying the sound of the air-demand valve of the scuba gear while releasing a stream of bubbles from his blowhole.
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At the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Mississippi, Kelly the dolphin has built up quite a reputation. All the dolphins at the institute are trained to hold onto any litter that falls into their pools until they see a trainer, when they can trade the litter for fish. In this way, the dolphins help to keep their pools clean.
Kelly has taken this task one step further. When people drop paper into the water she hides it under a rock at the bottom of the pool. The next time a trainer passes, she goes down to the rock and tears off a piece of paper to give to the trainer. After a fish reward, she goes back down, tears off another piece of paper, gets another fish, and so on. This behaviour is interesting because it shows that Kelly has a sense of the future and delays gratification. She has realised that a big piece of paper gets the same reward as a small piece and so delivers only small pieces to keep the extra food coming. She has, in effect, trained the humans.
Her cunning has not stopped there. 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.
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 1:43 am Post subject: Re: Why Dolphins are Deep Thinkers |
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| Big_Bird wrote: |
Particularly impressive is the dolphins' relaxed attitude when new sentences are introduced. For example, the dolphins generally responded correctly to "touch the frisbee with your tail and then jump over it". This has the characteristics of true understanding, not rigid training.
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Being able to understand a new combination of words the first time you hear it is one of the key points of true language, so if dolphins are really able to understand sentences like that based on an understanding of the individual words involved and how they are combined rather than being taught it by rote, they may well be capable of true language use, whether or not they have a language of their own. |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 1:47 am Post subject: Re: Why Dolphins are Deep Thinkers |
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You made my day, Big Bird. 
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| ... a person standing by the pool's window noticed that a dolphin calf was watching him. When he released a puff of smoke from his cigarette, the dolphin immediately swam off to her mother, returned and released a mouthful of milk, causing a similar effect to the cigarette smoke. |
 that speaks for itself!
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When people drop paper into the water she hides it under a rock at the bottom of the pool. The next time a trainer passes, she goes down to the rock and tears off a piece of paper to give to the trainer. After a fish reward, she goes back down, tears off another piece of paper, gets another fish, and so on. This behaviour is interesting because it shows that Kelly has a sense of the future and delays gratification. She has realised that a big piece of paper gets the same reward as a small piece and so delivers only small pieces to keep the extra food coming. She has, in effect, trained the humans.
Her cunning has not stopped there. 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. |
gull baiting !
I heard a lot of interesting stories about elephants recently while I was in Thailand. If just half of them are true then they're remarkably intelligent as well. |
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Konglishman
Joined: 14 Sep 2007
Location: Nanjing
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| Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 6:51 am Post subject: Re: Why Dolphins are Deep Thinkers |
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| Fox wrote: |
| Big_Bird wrote: |
Particularly impressive is the dolphins' relaxed attitude when new sentences are introduced. For example, the dolphins generally responded correctly to "touch the frisbee with your tail and then jump over it". This has the characteristics of true understanding, not rigid training.
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Being able to understand a new combination of words the first time you hear it is one of the key points of true language, so if dolphins are really able to understand sentences like that based on an understanding of the individual words involved and how they are combined rather than being taught it by rote, they may well be capable of true language use, whether or not they have a language of their own. |
In fact, dolphins call each other by name just like people do.
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Dolphins 'have their own names'
Dolphins communicate like humans by calling each other by "name", scientists in Fife have found.
The mammals are able to recognise themselves and other members of the same species as individuals with separate identities, using whistles.
St Andrews University researchers studying in Florida discovered bottlenose dolphins used names rather than sound to identify each other.
The three-year-study was funded by the Royal Society of London.
Dr Vincent Janik, of the Sea Mammal Unit at St Andrews University, said they conducted the research on wild dolphins.
He said: "We captured wild dolphins using nets when they came near the shore.
"Then in the shallow water we recorded their whistles before synthesising them on a computer so that we had a computer voice of a dolphin.
"Then we played it back to the dolphins and we found they responded. This showed us that the dolphins know each other's signature whistle instead of just the voice.
"I think it is a very exciting discovery because it means that these animals have evolved the same abilities as humans.
"Now we know they have labels for each other like we do."
The research was conducted in Sarasota Bay off Florida's west coast.
The findings are published in the US journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/4750471.stm |
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Panda
Joined: 25 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 9:12 pm Post subject: |
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| Love dolphine~! |
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Goku
Joined: 10 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 9:42 pm Post subject: |
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Random fact,
Dolphins are one of the few animals that exhibit homosexual tendencies. |
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Konglishman
Joined: 14 Sep 2007
Location: Nanjing
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| Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 10:02 pm Post subject: |
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| Goku wrote: |
Random fact,
Dolphins are one of the few animals that exhibit homosexual tendencies. |
I heard that there was a male dolphin living off of the coast of France, that kept trying to have sex with the French lady swimmers (female humans). |
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Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2009 10:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Goku wrote: |
Random fact,
Dolphins are one of the few animals that exhibit homosexual tendencies. |
According to this it's not all that uncommon at all. We live in a pretty gay world, so to speak. |
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soakitincider
Joined: 19 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:21 am Post subject: |
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| Because the AFC is tough and the Jets have better players? |
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AmericanExile
Joined: 04 May 2009
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| Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 11:48 am Post subject: |
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| soakitincider wrote: |
| Because the AFC is tough and the Jets have better players? |
I get it. It's like a joke but without the bit where you laugh. |
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Goku
Joined: 10 Dec 2008
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| Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 4:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Konglishman wrote: |
| Goku wrote: |
Random fact,
Dolphins are one of the few animals that exhibit homosexual tendencies. |
I heard that there was a male dolphin living off of the coast of France, that kept trying to have sex with the French lady swimmers (female humans). |
When I was in highschool someone linked me this pretty well renowned website on instructions on how to copulate with a dolphin. IT was DISGUSTING with so many lurid and accurate details.
I think it was made by some twisted dolphin trainer...
I wonder if it still exists |
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rusty1983
Joined: 30 Jan 2007
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Fishead soup
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:49 pm Post subject: |
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| Where can I get Dolphin Sashimi? |
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Underwaterbob
Joined: 08 Jan 2005
Location: In Cognito
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| Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 8:32 pm Post subject: |
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| Dolphins are also one of very few species that seem to kill for the fun of it. |
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calicoe
Joined: 23 Dec 2008
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 9:22 pm Post subject: |
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"At a dolphinarium, a person standing by the pool's window noticed that a dolphin calf was watching him. When he released a puff of smoke from his cigarette, the dolphin immediately swam off to her mother, returned and released a mouthful of milk, causing a similar effect to the cigarette smoke."
This is so incredibly cute .... and then not! Sort of like kids who imitate their parents. You have to watch what you do around kids and dolphins!
"Her cunning has not stopped there. 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. "
Holy heck! She's already progressed to training a village! |
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