Dolphins are idiots....

[Che Guava]

No, really....

Dolphins smart? Ha!

Dolphins and whales are dumber than goldfish and don't have the know-how to match a rat, new research from South Africa has revealed.

For years, humans have assumed the large brains of dolphins meant the mammals were highly intelligent.

Paul Manger from Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand, however, says it is not intelligence that created the dolphin super-brain – it's the cold.

In order to survive underwater, these warm-blooded animals developed brains that have a lot of the insulating material – called glia – but not too many neurons, which is the grey stuff that counts for reasoned thinking.


”Goldfish can solve problems that dolphins can't. When a goldfish jumps out of its bowl, it's thinking past its immediate environment. Dolphins don't have the cognitive leap,” Mr. Manger said in a telephone interview Thursday.

”Dolphins can do some things, but they have to be trained to do them. That's more of a reflection of low-intelligence.”

The same goes for whales because they share the dolphins' brain composition, he said.

Yet while dolphins aren't as smart as people tend to believe, they are as happy as they seem. Dr. Manger said dolphins have a ”huge amount” of serotonin in their brains, which is what he described as ”the happy drug”.

But measuring intelligence by glia and cortex ratios could be just as unreliable as the big-brain theory, said the head of Vancouver Aquarium's cetacean research program, Dr. Lance Barrett-Lennard.

Wading into the debate Thursday, Dr. Barrett said the highly social networks of dolphins indicated they had strong social intelligence.

"A dolphin could have a brain the size of a walnut and it wouldn't affect the observations they live very complex and social lives," Dr. Barrett-Lennard said. "They keep account of who their friends are, with very complicated hierarchies and allegiances. The other thing is they have spatial maps. They know exactly where to go when they need to look for certain food."

Dr. Manger's peer-reviewed research on the subject was published in Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.

link



Suddenly I see a market for dolphin meat

 

[bhsup]

Didn't that guy ever watch Flipper as a child? Dolphins are geniuses!!

 

[Grisu]

FLIPPER!!!

though I can't see the corellation between the meat market and the intelligence of the animal

 

[C~G]

Intelligence is much more complex issue than one could imagine.

Dolphins are in a way intelligent and some way idiots, just like humans are.

BTW, best part of the article is this:

”Dolphins can do some things, but they have to be trained to do them. That's more of a reflection of low-intelligence.”

And humans don't? We're utterly helpless from birth without outside guidance. We just learn patterns how to resolve simple puzzles and move from that point on. Most of our learning is based into repeating simple tasks. We monkey our forefathers and then play to be smart.

I could maybe point out that cognitive leaps, evolutionary steps and scientific breakthroughs happen mostly by accident.

 

[Miss Bliss]

Displaying complex behaviour patterns is vastly different to the expression of intelligent awareness streaming through creation...I agree C~G.

 

[Che Guava]

though I can't see the corellation between the meat market and the intelligence of the animal

I just wanted to poke a bit of fun at the folks who eat animals, just not 'intelligent animals', because I suppose that is worse..

As for intelligence, there are many different forms so its hard to compare, but I still think that dolphins might fall a little short, at least accorind g to the results in the OP. Sure, they have good social intelligence (like ants do ) and good spatial intellignce (like pidgeons ), but dont have that 'constructive intelligence' that allows them to learn from situations and apply them elsewhere, like most other suposedly intelligent animals do.

Of course I'm no expert in animal behaviour. I just find it kind of funny when we find out that the animal we've 'humanized' in a particular way doesn't really fit the real story

 

[C~G]

I just find it kind of funny when we find out that the animal we've 'humanized' in a particular way doesn't really fit the real story

One day we will notice that one of the animals we have "humanized" in a particular way that doesn't really fit the real story is ourselves.

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

Dolphins are stupid, as are all marine wildlife. They've had millions of years of evolution to get themselves on land and they still can't manage it.

 

[Che Guava]

Dolphins are stupid, as are all marine wildlife. They've had millions of years of evolution to get themselves on land and they still can't manage it.

Lazy marine mammals!! Learn to walk already!

 

[silver 2039]

Don't mock the dolphin...who knows when they may take their revenge...

 

[Grisu]

Of course I'm no expert in animal behaviour. I just find it kind of funny when we find out that the animal we've 'humanized' in a particular way doesn't really fit the real story

just wait, one day, you too will realize that dolphins truly are the second most intelligent being on earth, but by that time they will probably have left earth already

 

[Che Guava]

just wait, one day, you too will realize that dolphins truly are the second most intelligent being on earth, but by that time they will probably have left earth already

Smart enough to leave earth, not smart enough to avoid tuna nets....

 

[Chieftess]

If you were stuck in a small bowl, wouldn't YOU want to jump out and end it all?

That's what we always said when our goldfishes were found on the kitchen table. "It comitted suicide".

 

[Rik Meleet]

Dolphins are idiots ??
Next thing they'll say is that Whales and Orca's are idiots.... We can't have that.

At least they are smart enough to make humans believe they were smart

 

[PrinceOfLeigh]

Does this mean Pigs are moved up to the top slot? I heard Pigs were pretty clever.

 

[Che Guava]

Dolphins are idiots ??
Next thing they'll say is that Whales and Orca's are idiots.... We can't have that.

Read the full article, they already have

 

[Grisu]

Smart enough to leave earth, not smart enough to avoid tuna nets....

just mark my words, once the yellow bulldozer-spaceships arrive, you'll believe me too

 

[IglooDame]

Anyone saying dolphins are idiots in a public forum are obviously playing right into the handsfins of the sharks.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

First they came for Pluto, and I said nothing. Then they came for dolphins, and still I said nothing. Then when they came for me, no planets or marine mammals spoke up for me.

 

[Sparta]

Nice, BE!

Don't mock the dolphin...who knows when they may take their revenge...

Indeed:

Dolphins Evolve Opposable Thumbs (Onion satirical article (one instance of strong language))


[@PrinceOfLeigh: "Study: Dolphins Not So Intelligent On Land" ]