Dolphins Learning/Evolving before our Eyes? by AnthonyT

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Dolphins Learning/Evolving before our Eyes?

POSTED BY: ANTHONYT
UPDATED: Wednesday, August 31, 2011 07:22
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Monday, August 29, 2011 7:31 PM

Freedom is Important because People are Important

http://news.yahoo.com/fish-catching-trick-may-spreading-among-dolphins
-080748681.html

Hello,

This reminds me of the movie 2001. In the opening scene, in the shadow of a Monolith, an ape first gets the idea of using a bone as a club. It is the defining moment of tool-use that starts human development.

Of course, this has possibly been going on for thousands of years, and we never noticed until recently.

--Anthony

_______________________________________________

“If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all”

Jacob Hornberger

“Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”

Mahatma Gandhi

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011 8:08 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

I don't find it that surprising. Dolphins have great communication among themselves, and are smarter than anyone realizes (in my opinion anyway). They figure things out, rather than just act out of instinct. And once one of them discovers a method which makes getting food easier, it doesn't surprise me in the slightest that they start telling others.

I saw/learned a LOT when I was working at Marineworld. Behind the scenes, we had Lilly working with dolphins and what I saw fascinated me. My belief (wish?) is that maybe they're just as smart as us, but their environment hasn't necessitated learning the skills we need on land. That and the fact that they're content to live WITHIN their environment, rather than change the environment to suit themselves as we do (and as always fails, in the end). We may never know, certainly not in my lifetime, but I have a rather "Adamsish" view of them, from all I've observed and experienced.

Dolphins and otters, to me, are among the few species who have it so damned easy that they have a LOT of time to play, and do! Easy food, comfortable environment, few predators (NONE when it comes to dolphins--except us--as they can take on sharks). Killer whales (also dolphins) are a lot less smart than regular dolphins, from what I saw at Marineworld. The dolphins I knew there sometimes seemed almost SMARTER than us, laughing at us as they did exactly what THEY wanted when they felt like it.

You only have to look at all the other methods they've used to make eating easier, from their "bubble circles" to those mentioned in the article, to believe that this is yet a new method they've stumbled across, and it will spread. We unfortunately look at and judge them by our own standards, which is a mistake, to say the least. I never anthropomorphize them, but I certainly admit to admiring them.

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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Tuesday, August 30, 2011 4:32 PM

RIONAEIRE

Beir bua agus beannacht

Yeah Niki, dolphins are pretty cool and they're very intelligent. Otters are soooooo cute too.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya

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Wednesday, August 31, 2011 7:22 AM

NIKI2

Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...

We just sulkied out at the local reclamation ponds. As I was setting up, a woman came out (lots of people walk out there, birdwatch, bike, jog, etc.) and said there were two otters in the ponds! Unfortunately I was meeting with other "mushers" and the dogs were hooked up so I couldn't leave them, or I'd have rushed out to look. Choey saw one once in one of the ponds out by the Bay--which surprised me until I remembered they do fish coastal areas--but I haven't. I'm looking NOW, tho', believe me, and will be going out to the reclamation ponds regularly from here on out. Wish me luck!

I love sea otters and care about their survival, but it's river otters that truly have my heart! They, like dolphins, have it so easy and as a result play so much, they're a gas!

Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off

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