Intelligence

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2003/jul/03/research.science/print

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.

Originally posted by Palynka
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2003/jul/03/research.science/print

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 wa ...[text shortened]... alf, who taught other calves, and so gull-baiting has become a hot game among the dolphins.

WOW! That is cool!

Originally posted by Palynka
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2003/jul/03/research.science/print

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 wa ...[text shortened]... alf, who taught other calves, and so gull-baiting has become a hot game among the dolphins.

It's been pretty obvious for decades dolphins have unusually high intelligence. The analysis of the sounds they make are clearly advanced communications we are just beginning to scratch the surface of as far as translating. I look forward to the day we can communicate on a high level with them, we as humans may learn something new about socialization, communications, empathy and the like from the study of dolphins. This comes as no surprise to me. Lilly would have been proud.

Originally posted by sonhouse
It's been pretty obvious for decades dolphins have unusually high intelligence. The analysis of the sounds they make are clearly advanced communications we are just beginning to scratch the surface of as far as translating. I look forward to the day we can communicate on a high level with them, we as humans may learn something new about socialization, commu ...[text shortened]... like from the study of dolphins. This comes as no surprise to me. Lilly would have been proud.

I go further than that. I say that the dolphins has higher intelligence than humans. Not technologically but in thought processes. Higher than their trainer anyway.

Originally posted by FabianFnas
I go further than that. I say that the dolphins has higher intelligence than humans. Not technologically but in thought processes. Higher than their trainer anyway.

And why do you say that?

Am i the only one intelligent enough to realize that this article was meant to be a joke ?

GRANNY.

Originally posted by Palynka
And why do you say that?

Don't tell him, Fabian.

GRANNY.

And on a sad note:
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/423466/2069461

and this bit:

“Intelligence” is a term with many definitions and interpretations. It’s difficult enough to measure in humans let alone other animals. Large brains are traditionally associated with greater intelligence, and the brain of the adult bottlenose dolphin is about 25% heavier than the average adult human brain. Generally though, larger mammals tend to have larger brains, and so a more accurate estimate of brain power comes from the ratio of brain size to body size - the “encephalisation quotient” (EQ). While river dolphins have an EQ of 1.5, some dolphins have EQs that are more than double those of our closest relatives: gorillas have 1.76, chimpanzees 2.48, bottlenose dolphins 5.6. The bottlenose’s EQ is surpassed only by a human’s, which measures 7.4 (Australopithecines - hominids that lived around 4m years ago - fall within the dolphin range: 3.25-4.72). But we don’t know enough about the workings of the brain to be sure of what these anatomical measurements truly represent. Today, most scientists share the view that it is behaviour, not structure, that must be the measure of intelligence within a species.

Humans, in their supreme arrogance, are all to quick to dismiss just how intelligent great apes, dolphins, and ravens are. Those of us that work with these animals are not surprised.

Originally posted by Badwater
Humans, in their supreme arrogance, are all to quick to dismiss just how intelligent great apes, dolphins, and ravens are. Those of us that work with these animals are not surprised.

Ravens now, too?

Originally posted by AThousandYoung
Ravens now, too?

Ravens have been shown now to pass the mirror test, previously only chimps and apes and maybe a few other primates. I think dolphins also pass that test. Interestingly, chimps lose the ability when they get past their version of middle age.

Originally posted by sonhouse
Ravens have been shown now to pass the mirror test, previously only chimps and apes and maybe a few other primates. I think dolphins also pass that test. Interestingly, chimps lose the ability when they get past their version of middle age.

What's the mirror test? If it's what I think it is, then I believe elephants have passed it as well.

Originally posted by mtthw
What's the mirror test? If it's what I think it is, then I believe elephants have passed it as well.

yeah, may have heard that. If you pass the mirror test it at least shows you have personal body awareness, it goes like this: You take an animal, like the raven test, put a colored dot (assuming that animal has color vision) on some part of the body it can't see without a mirror and then put a mirror in front of it so it can see the dot. If it has body awareness, it can tell the reflection is itself. So seeing the dot in the reflection, the bird figures out the dot is on its own body and tries to scratch it off. It is said to be one of the signs of intelligence.

Now I've heard lots about dolphins but again, as nearly always, I'll draw from personal experience and see what the panel thinks..

I've only been on a boat once but when I was a couple of dolphins came and swam with us for a while. They even looked at me in a friendly way. (Now that 'friendly thing' is just between me and the dolphin(s) ).
My point here is that no other water creatures (that I know of) perform this type of behaviour regurlarly, (as is reported by many a fisherman).
Other 'fish' are usually scared of people(and with good reason).

My other point is,(as per the thread title), that 'intelligence' is not really fully understood- for there seem to be very different kinds of intelligence out there.
Did Einstein say that we only use 10 or 15 % of our brain capacity?

Humans historically have thought that they have a monopoloy on intelligence and that all other animals are just subservient "nothings" in comparison.

And where has human 'intelligence' gotten us?
Don't get me wrong- I'm not saying go back to the stone age. Just drop the arrogance...Anyone follow?

Originally posted by karoly aczel
Now I've heard lots about dolphins but again, as nearly always, I'll draw from personal experience and see what the panel thinks..

I've only been on a boat once but when I was a couple of dolphins came and swam with us for a while. They even looked at me in a friendly way. (Now that 'friendly thing' is just between me and the dolphin(s) ).
My point ...[text shortened]... I'm not saying go back to the stone age. Just drop the arrogance...Anyone follow?

In the big picture, humans now have the ability to save the whole planet, that might be our genetic destiny. If we stop the big one, like the asteroid that helped kill the dino's, then maybe we save dolphins also and maybe they will yet evolve to greater heights than humans. Assuming we don't kill ourselves before we get that chance!