Dolphins have been declared the world’s second most intelligent creatures after humans, with scientists suggesting they are so bright that they should be treated as “non-human persons”.
Studies into dolphin behaviour have highlighted how similar their communications are to those of humans and that they are brighter than chimpanzees. These have been backed up by anatomical research showing that dolphin brains have many key features associated with high intelligence.
The researchers argue that their work shows it is morally unacceptable to keep such intelligent animals in amusement parks or to kill them for food or by accident when fishing. Some 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die in this way each year.
“Many dolphin brains are larger than our own and second in mass only to the human brain when corrected for body size,” said Lori Marino, a zoologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, who has used magnetic resonance imaging scans to map the brains of dolphin species and compare them with those of primates.
“The neuroanatomy suggests psychological continuity between humans and dolphins and has profound implications for the ethics of human-dolphin interactions,” she added.
The Sunday Times – January 3, 2010:
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I can think of worse species to share the planet with. At least Dolphins won’t go to war with us. Ants on the other hand could be trouble.
What is going on with scientist these days? This present crop is turning the once respected profession into a joke.
They totally fabricate global warming data and now it’s the march of the Dolphin People.
Government must be looking for another group to tax.
“Marino and Reiss will present their findings at a conference in San Diego, California, next month, concluding that the new evidence about dolphin intelligence makes it morally repugnant to mistreat them.
Thomas White, professor of ethics at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, who has written a series of academic studies suggesting dolphins should have rights, will speak at the same conference.”
Wonder who is paying for this conference?
So long and thanks for all the fish.
Ya know. Too bad they don’t have fingers for sign language like Koko the Gorilla. I’d make for an interesting experiments in communication. Ya can’t much more alien.
In the last chapter in the book SuperFreakonomics, it talks about this one research group teaching monkeys the value and use of money. One monkey figured out how he could pay for sex.
May be a similar study should be done using dophins.
With respect #7 paying for sex as a sign of intelligence is debatable. I mean really what kind of loser monkeys do they test these days?
How intelligent a creature is does not define whether we treat it with respect or not. By that argument, severely mentally-retarded humans could be eaten for food. Either humans are created separate from and higher than animals or not. If not, then we can treat people just like we treat cockroaches and spiders. If so, then even the smartest creatures may be eaten for food. Of course, cruelty to any creature is uncalled for.
It appears that #2, Dr. Dudd is jealous because they found something more intelligent than him. Again. Can you imagine how many they would find if they actually looked?
Why shouldn’t animals have measurable intelligence? Although Dr. Dudd and a few other throwbacks don’t understand that man evolved from “lower” animals, all animals have, and need, intelligence to survive. While some simple animals may survive simply through numbers, they end up being the food of higher animals. All animals need intelligence to feed, procreate, and keep from being food.
No intelligence at all and you become a plant. Like pedro.
#9 is correct. We don’t define life or reclassify it based on intelligence level. (*Insert ad hominem here for the group you least identify with*)
#8 — Since you asked, the study used capuchin monkeys which according to Wikipedia are “the most intelligent New World monkeys”.
#9 — If a cheetah is chasing a human, do you think the cheetah knows about humans being superior? Or a shark? Humans are food if they are in the wrong place at the right time.
Only humans place themselves above all other creatures.
Scientists have long known that dolphins are intelligent animals. It is tragic how we cage them only to amuse the sheeple.
Not long ago we threw humans in stadiums to fight like animals till death or be fed to wild animals. Again, all to amuse the sheeple or some ruler.
Unfortunately for dolphins, Republicans still see these mammals as “fish” as noted above.It’s tragic.
#1 Jmsbrtms
No they don’t go to war with us, they war with rival pods and with other species like shark.
But they have been known to sexually harass us and each other. So maybe they are JUST like humans?
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#10-Mr Fussion-man evolved from “lower” animals…
In your case I am willing to accept this theory. In some corner of the earth your evolution has lead to a wood pussy missing his brother.
You think that study will stop anything? Please, humans are a horrible race. We decided for CENTURIES that you could “own” a black person. We knew black people could talk, do math, had emotions, golly, were just like ‘real’ people, and we still allowed them to be held against their will, forced to work for no money, and be bought and sold as properties. For much of our civilization women fared barely any better, still mostly property with little control over their lives. So you think we’re going to let dolphins be treated like humans? We barely let HUMANS be treated like humans.
to this day there are humans that are treated less well than dolphins in amusement parks. Which should come first? better treatment of dolphins or better treatment of our own species?
If they’re people, can we fuck ’em?
I have no problem treating porpoises like people. Everybody knows they’re the second most intelligent life form on earth, after mice. Some day I even dream of people being treated like people, but for now, I know it’s just a fantasy.
#16 That’s a very good point, but if you think there is no longer slavery in this world, or even this country you are very wrong. Just Google for the words “human traffic” and the name of your city (or the nearest large city). I suspect you will be shocked at what you find.
whistle…. click …. clickerty whistle-creak. Whistle.
Click-click.
#15, Dr. Dudd,
And in your Creationist world people have been persecuted, killed, instilled with rabid religious fervor, and generally made stupid.
I remember seeing a poster many, many years ago. “More people have died in the name of Jesus than any other cause”. Stupid murderers.
People, listen!
If we start to discriminate based on brain size, your dear leader Bill O’Reilly and his offspring will be considered animals and could end up on the Endangered Species List!
#13 You have a bad case of tunnel vision. Some people eat these things as a traditional food. Not many of them are republicans. Very few of them are democrats either. In fact most of them aren’t even Americans.
African Apes are traditional bush food but then again when a famine came along in the same region people ended up on the menu. As recently as this decade some Africans were making human sacrifices and eating parts of the bodies to gain power.
I well continue to eat meat because I’m an omnivore. Killer whales eat other whales and dolphins have been seen killing other dolphins. The big meat eaters have to dine on the big plant eaters or starve. If you don’t think this is correct behavior its because the design committee for the Universe doesn’t care what you think.
#21-Mr Fussion-I remember seeing a poster many, many years ago. “More people have died in the name of Jesus than any other cause”. Stupid murderers.
I kinda figured you were one of those “generally made stupid” that believes something just because it is printed on a poster?
If it eases your mind – I didn’t do it.
#24: Over time, religious wars have probably killed more peoplethan any other kind of conflict. Think about religious martyrs, the Crusades, schisms within Christianity (Protestant vs. Catholic vs. Eastern Orthodox, that’s still going on to this day), Muslims killing various infidels (see Sunnis and Shiites) and vice versa. We haven’t even gotten around to the other religious wars in middle and east Asia…
In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m pretty disgusted with almost all religious misbehavior, and gave up religion for Lent many decades ago.
In response, only 2 nano seconds later, The English Language Institution for Scientific Mad Cow Syndrome stated that his statement was a double negative, thus, invalid. You cannot have a non-human person, that would be impossible to then have neither a human or person, yet also a person. This provides clear evidence showing that most scientists claims are more than improper, they are improper English that end up negating their entire statements every time they speak, yet, for some odd reason, they still get funded for speaking in tongues.
In case all of you can’t figure it out, concepts do not kill people. People kill them.
Religion is not the issue it is an excuse for the human mind to justify its base desire to destroy that which it cannot control or that it fears.
Like ideology, it is a scapegoat. Something to lay blame on to absolve your own ethically decayed minds.
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Second most intelligent? Huh! Since when were dolphins responsible for so many pathological killings as humans who are certainly the most dangerous species on the Planet?!
Show me the last hospital built by dolphins.
#25-Floyd-I’m pretty disgusted with almost all religious misbehavior…
There is no denying that religious wars have taken a great toll on humanity. An even greater toll can be laid at the feet of nonreligious dictators like Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin and the list goes on.
No, if you are disgusted it should be with those that use the power of government to murder and control.
There is where your real enemies congratulate.
Some of you are confusing intelligence with morality.