We are not. Research and observations in recent years have revealed that whales and dolphins not only have the ability to learn as individuals, but those individuals can then pass their new knowledge onto others. This is a rare intelligence in the animal kingdom. Take Kelly. A dolphin who sadly lives in a research centre in the US, she has been trained to keep her tank clean. Every time she brings a piece of litter to her trainer, she is rewarded with a fish. So she’s built upon the idea. Now, when she finds a piece of paper, she wedges it under a stone, and tears off individual pieces, which she brings to the surface one at a time. Thus, a single piece of litter earns her several fish. She’s also noticed that gulls come to her tank, hungry for fish. So she uses one of her fish as bait, catches the unwary birds, and presents them to her trainers for even more food. She has not only created these remarkable strategies by herself, but she’s even passed them on to her calf. Then there’s Billie. A dolphin who became trapped in a sealock in the 1980s, she was rescued and rehabilitated in captivity before being released back into the wild just three weeks later. Scientists were amazed to see that, upon her return to the seas, she started tail-walking, a trick taught in marine parks for rewards that she must have observed, even though during those three weeks she was not trained herself. To have picked up the skill so rapidly is one thing… but Billie was soon teaching her wild companions to do the same. A remarkable example of social learning, and great intelligence. ‘They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom.’ It’s the memorable quote from the 1995 film Braveheart, and it will stand the test of time. To humans, freedom is the ultimate right, and we’ll fight for it to our deaths.Suffering under confinement is shared by whales and dolphins, too. Unlike many animals that live longer in captivity than in the wild, in the case of these marine mammals it’s the other way round. Life expectancy is considerably shorter across the species, while infant mortality is higher. Male orcas, for example, live an average 30 years in the wild, while females average 46 years, with some living to 80 or 90. However, in a recent analysis of orcas born in captivity or captured from the wild, their average survival rate is estimated at only 8.5 years. Whales and dolphins are wide-ranging, with large extended families and often huge social groups, in which individuals are dependent upon each other. Remove them from both these aspects of their lives, and the claustrophobic effects upon them can become catastrophic. Depression, physical illness and aberrant behaviour have all been documented. It is therefore unsurprising that, from time to time, human trainers are hurt or even killed by captive individuals, such as orcas, that have become unnaturally aggressive from being held in stressful artificial environments. In addition, those taken into captivity from the wild are not the only ones that suffer. The groups that are left behind may depend upon them for many social reasons, and vital bonds necessary for orca survival can be broken as key members are taken from family groups. People who enjoy swimming with dolphins, or dolphin-assisted therapy, often say that the dolphins themselves seem so happy. Sadly, but understandably, they are misunderstanding the situation. The apparent smile on the faces of dolphins is actually just a physicality, not an emotive response. It remains there as part of dolphin anatomy, no matter how sad, upset or ill they may be.The Earth’s crust is populated with life forms that possess endless forms of morphology, physiology, and behaviors that have evolved amidst continuously changing environments. Among them, many warm-blooded animals possess complex, cognitive, characteristics that embellish them to have a 'higher level of consciousness' or interactive awareness of their surroundings.It would seem that most invertebrates are hard-wired to react to stimulus that should be present in the environment they've evolved in (cephalopods are an exception, which reveals that there is no concrete plan for where these qualities show up in animals), while mammals and birds have more complexities to their mental functioning. Among even this group of animals, a few individual species posses a heightened ability in processing their environment, other animals, and more interestingly, themselves.

Dolphin Intelligence: Let's Get Real It seems as though I always have to be the 'bad guy' for the sake of common sense and logic. Dolphins and other cetaceans are known to be some of the ‘smartest’ animals in the world beside humans, along with elephants, great apes, and corvids (the 'crow' family), however, despite the existence of no convincing evidence, many people believe that they are almost as smart, as smart, or even smarter than humans. Well, I’m not going to say ‘zero evidence’. There is also evidence that aliens have visited Earth, so possibly, there is also some that dolphins possess more 'intelligence' than humans. But it really depends on how you (wish to) see things.An explanation that amounts to 'dolphins are more intelligent because they don't destroy the planet, aren't greedy, and don't start wars like humans'. When it comes to the subject of cetacean attributes, throughout my research of this subject I end up being more amazed by human behavior over the accomplishments that dolphins have exhibited. Many people appear to have some form of a moral obligation to elevate this specific species’ status over humans in almost every situation. Why do humans become so angry at this question? What many people don't seem to understand is this: When I propose that dolphins are not as intelligent as humans, I’m surely not suggesting that they are not intelligent at all and should be treated like an inanimate object, but the level of offense that people take over this issue is near religious, and they then behave as though I am oppressing a minority group. Once, I was called ‘evil’ for suggesting that dolphins possess the intelligence of a 2 year old human. Being labeled words like ‘arrogant’, egotistical, and other versions of maintaining an ignorant and unsubstantiated superiority complex is common.Are dolphins as smart as people? And if so, shouldn't we be treating them a bit better than we do now? Those were the topics of discussion at a session on the ethical and policy implications of dolphin intelligence here today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (which publishes ScienceNOW)., First up, just how smart are dolphins? Researchers have been exploring the question for 3 decades, and the answer, it turns out, is pretty darn smart. In fact, according to panelist Lori Marino, an expert on cetacean neuroanatomy at Emory University in Atlanta, they may be Earth's second smartest creature (next to humans, of course). Marino bases her argument on studies of the dolphin brain. Bottlenose dolphins have bigger brains than humans (1600 grams versus 1300 grams), and they have a brain-to-body-weight ratio greater than great apes do (but lower than humans). "They are the second most encephalized beings on the planet," says Marino. But it's not just size that matters. Dolphins also have a very complex neocortex, the part of the brain responsible for problem-solving, self-awareness, and variety of other traits we associate with human intelligence. And researchers have found gangly neurons called Von Economo neurons, which in humans and apes have been linked to emotions, social cognition, and even theory of mind—the ability to sense what others are thinking. Overall, said Marino, "dolphin brains stack up quite well to human brains." What dolphins do with their brains is also impressive. Cognitive psychologist Diana Reiss of Hunter College of the City University of New York brought the audience up to speed on the latest on dolphin behavior. Reiss has been working with dolphins in aquariums for most of her life, and she says their social intelligence rivals that of the great apes. They can recognize themselves in a mirror (a feat most animals fail at—and a sign of self-awareness). They can understand complex gesture "sentences" from humans. And they can learn to poke an underwater keyboard to request toys to play with. "Much of their learning is similar to what we see with young children," says Reiss.So if dolphins are so similar to people, shouldn't we be treating them more like people? For example, should we really being keeping them captive in zoos and aquariums? "The very traits that make dolphins interesting to study," says Marino, "make confining them in captivity unethical." She notes, for example, that in the wild, dolphins have a home range of about 100 square kilometers. In captivity, they roam one-ten-thousandth of 1% of this.Reiss is more concerned with the massive dolphin culling seen in some parts of the world. She showed graphic video of dolphins being drowned and stabbed as the waters turned red with blood in places such as the Japanese town of Taiji. Now that scientists know so much about how dolphins think and feel, she said, they should use that data to build a bridge to the public—a big theme of this year's meeting. "Our scientific knowledge needs to be used to influence international policy and ethical considerations," she said. "Scientific facts should transcend geographic boundaries."Up last, Thomas White, a philosopher at Loyola Marymount University in Redondo Beach, California, made the argument that dolphins aren't merely like people—they may actually be people, or at least, "nonhuman persons," as he described them. Defining exactly what it means to be a person is difficult, White said, but dolphins seem to fit the checklist many philosophers agree on: They're alive, aware of their environment, and have emotions—those ones are easy. But they also seem to have personalities, exhibit self-controlled behavior, and treat others appropriately, even ethically. That combination of traits is harder to come by in the animal world. When it comes to what defines a person, said White, "dolphins fit the bill." But before the researchers take their findings too far, experts caution that the scientific case for dolphin intelligence is based on relatively little data. "It's a pretty story, but it's very speculative," says Jacopo Annese, a neuroanatomist at the University of California, San Diego. Despite a long history of research, scientists still don't agree on the roots of intelligence in the human brain, he says. "We don't know, even in humans, what is the relationship between brain structure and function, let alone intelligence." Far less is known about dolphins, Annese says. And who wants to be like humans anyway? As one audience member noted, our conflicts kill and displace millions of our own species. "When we try to think about how we treat these creatures," he said, "we should also think about how we treat ourselves."Dolphins have invented a range of feeding strategies that more than match the diversity of habitats in which they live. In an estuary off the coast of Brazil, tucuxi dolphins are regularly seen capturing fish by "tail whacking". They flick a fish up to 9 metres with their tail flukes and then pick the stunned prey from the water surface. 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. In Galveston Bay, Texas, certain female bottlenose dolphins and their young follow shrimp boats. The dolphins swim into the shrimp nets to take live fish and then wriggle out again - a skill requiring expertise to avoid entanglement in the fishing nets. Dolphins can also use tools to solve problems. Scientists have observed a dolphin coaxing a reluctant moray eel out of its crevice by killing a scorpion fish and using its spiny body to poke at the eel. Off the western coast of Australia, bottlenose dolphins place sponges over their snouts, which protects them from the spines of stonefish and stingrays as they forage over shallow seabeds. A 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. Many species live in complex societies. To fit in, young dolphins must learn about the conventions and rules of dolphin society, teamwork and who's who in the group. For these dolphins, play provides an ideal opportunity to learn about relationships in a relatively non-threatening way. At Sarasota Bay in Florida, Randall Wells and his team have observed groups of juvenile male bottlenose dolphins behaving like boisterous teenage boys. Using its head to do the lifting, one dolphin may even get another dolphin air borne, actually tossing it out of the water. It's unclear exactly what is going on. It could be play, but more likely these are serious interactions that are defining social relationships. Dolphins gradually build up a network of relationships, ranging from the strong bond between a mother and calf, to casual "friendships" with other community members. Wells and his team were the first to notice that adult male bottlenose dolphins tend to hang out in pairs. The dolphins' motivation for ganging together is under study but may involve ecological and/or reproductive benefits. Dolphins may also form "supergangs". Richard Connor and his team in Shark Bay, Western Australia, discovered a group of 14 males. The supergang was a force to be reckoned with. In the three years it was studied, it never lost a fight. To keep track of the many different relationships within a large social group, it helps to have an efficient communication system. Dolphins use a variety of clicks and whistles to keep in touch. Some species have a signature whistle, which, like a name, is a unique sound that allows other dolphins to identify it. Dolphins also communicate using touch and body postures. 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. Another test of awareness comes from mirror experiments. Diana Reiss and her researchers installed mirrors inside New York Aquarium to test whether two bottlenose dolphins were self-aware enough to recognise their reflections. They placed markings in non-toxic black ink on various places of the dolphins' bodies. The dolphins swam to the mirror and exposed the black mark to check it out. They spent more time in front of the mirror after being marked than when they were not marked. The ability to recognise themselves in the mirror suggests self-awareness, a quality previously only seen in people and great apes. Not only do dolphins recognise their mirror images, but they can also watch TV. Language-trained chimps only learned to respond appropriately to TV screens after a long period of training. In contrast, Lou Herman's dolphins responded appropriately the very first time they were exposed to television. Of course, an understanding of TV is of little use in the wild, but the ability to respond to new situations has huge implications. In the shallows of Florida Bay, Laura Engleby and her team have recently discovered an ingenious fishing strategy. A number of the local dolphin groups seem to use a circle of mud to catch mullet. The action usually begins with one dolphin swimming off in a burst of speed. It then dives below the surface, circling a shoal of fish, stirring up mud along the way. On cue, the other dolphins in the group move into position, forming a barrier to block off any underwater escape routes. As the circle of mud rises to the surface, the mullet are trapped. Their only option is to leap clear out of the water and unwittingly straight into the open mouths of the waiting dolphins. There is still much to learn about these flexible problem-solvers, but from the evidence so far, it seems that dolphins do indeed deserve their reputation for being highly intelligent.