March 11, 2010 • 20 mins
Dolphins are one of Earth's smartest animals. In fact, scientists still aren't sure exactly how smart a dolphin is in relation to the average human being. Join Robert and Allison as they break down the science behind dolphin intelligence in this podcast.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how stuff
works dot com. Hey, guys, welcome to the podcast. This
is Alison that don't milk, the science editor at how
stuff works dot com. And this is Robert Lambs, science
writerer at how stuff works dot com. So a while back,
(00:23):
you guys can't see me, but I was as big
as a house because I had a baby. You had
a baby, That's right. You were gone for months at
a time there, and you just thought I went to
a ruba, But no, I was out on maternity leave. Yeah,
I thought you went to a ruba and that just
came back with an extra kid. But so do you
know where I had this uh, this baby? A hospital,
(00:44):
I believe, and that would be a good guess. And
that is where I did actually have said baby, although
in the nick of time because baby came fast. Who um.
But I found out after the fact that maybe I
should have investigated another birthing option, mean like a like
a like a cool or a birthing swing or something.
We're making that up. Is there such a swing? But yeah,
(01:08):
maybe a pool. I've been interested in the idea of
water birth or even a home birth or a home
water birth. Um. But it turns out that I missed.
I missed the boat I could have I could have
had a baby in the ocean with a dolphin assisting me,
and you would have needed to be on a boat
for that probably. Well, yeah, that's true, a dolphin doula.
(01:28):
So today we're gonna be talking about dolphins, and uh
there's a huge amount of quackery surrounding dolphins and also
some pretty cool science and a lot of it seemingly
to uh surround the whole topic of having a dolphin
president at your present, at your birth. There's a lot
of interconnection between dolphins and babies. So tell me more
about this, this dolphin doola. How does this work? Well,
(01:50):
there's an outfit in Hawaii called the Serious Institute. Serious
is in the name of satellite radio or the constellation,
as opposed to are you serious? Not like serious science?
Gotcha right? Rich? Um, So these people at this institute
decided that, um, underwater birth was a good thing, and
they also decided that, um, there's a clear therapeutic value
(02:13):
of dolphins. And so what would be the next logical step.
We'll put the two together. A water birth with dolphins. Well,
I mean, I think this Cigaroos concert is pretty relaxing,
but I wouldn't want to have a baby there. Um,
it just seems kind of weird. It does seem kind
of weird. I saw a video of it on the internet,
(02:35):
because the Internet has these kinds of things, and I
was on YouTube, and um, it was it was kind
of odd. And who knows if this video is real.
Of course, anything can be faked. I realized that. But
there was a woman with a you know, a very
big belly and a bikini and uh well part of
a bikini, and a baby coming out, and and a
dolphin nosing around in parts that I would not want
(02:55):
a dolphin nosing around. And when I was giving birth
the baby clearly real. In the it was very hard
to make out because because the dolphin could have been
a puppet too. I mean, I don't think it was
a dolphin puppet, but hey, it might have been. The
baby was kind of murky, and the photography or the
videography underwater it's not of It's not of good quality. Anyway.
(03:16):
Penn and Teller wound up interviewing these guys on their
showtime show Bullshit, and they did, in fact call on
this not no surprise there. Well, it's it's interesting. Actually
have some more bulle if you will, surrounding human births
and dolphins. UM. I can't say for a fact that
if you go there now you can find this program,
(03:38):
but at least previously at Hotel Lost Dolphins in Lima, Peru,
they had a program going there for a while where
pregnant women would come by like once a week and
in fifteen minute sessions they would hang out with the
dolphins there at the hotel in the tank. They weren't guessed,
you know, part of the decoration, I guess if you
if you will, and they would the whole cell on
(04:00):
this or or the large part of it anyway, was
that the dolphins are shooting out all these ultrasonic waves
you know they use. The dolphins are heavy into using
their sound, right. Um. So the idea is that these
ultrasonic waves are going to like reach out and touch
your baby and make your baby develop faster or smarter,
you know, or be able to talk to fish and
(04:22):
he or she grows up. Right, And I hate to
even say there's a little truth to that, but there's
a two thousand and eight study that's pretty interesting, UM
from a team of neuroscientists at Arizona State University, and
they were looking at ways to use ultrasound to stimulate
like specific brain circuitry um and and using that as
(04:43):
a way to to treat things like Alzheimer's disease and
Parkinson's disease and epilepsy and things of that nature. So, yes,
there's there's truth to the idea that ultrasonic waves can
be used beneficially on the human mind. UM. Not a
lot to support the idea that that dolphins can use
(05:03):
sound waves to make your baby better. Um. Right, And
you can just back away from dolphins one step more
and say that you know, stimulation, um, like any external stimuli,
whether it be music or a dolphin um and and
a Mozart CDs a lot cheaper, I think, Yeah, which
manteresting the question how much was this dolphin fifteen minute session?
I wonder how much they had to pay for it? Um.
(05:25):
I understand it was pretty pricey. But but here's the
interesting thing. You know, they talked to the women afterwards.
You know, they're taught, like like you said, they're they're
they're feeling the baby move and any number of stimm
stimuli can actually you know, cause that that sort of
thing to happen. But then also they're talking about like, oh,
the mother was was calmed just just by being around
the dolphins. Like you said, dolphins have a very calming effect,
(05:46):
and that plays in UM into a lot of the
same territory as a dolphin assisted therapy, which is one
thing before we go into the next instance of dolphins
being used in a fairly interesting way. UM, you guys
need to actually kind of picture this. There's it's not
a woman who's swimming around in the pool. It's it's
a woman with her Well, the pictures are of a
(06:09):
woman like kneeling by the side of a pool with
her belly exposed, and the dolphins actually kind of like nuzzling.
But yes, it it's a it's reminiscent to of this
dolphin assisted therapy UM program, which is just another animal
assisted therapy program. You frequently see this involving horses where
you take often children and you put them in there
(06:30):
with animals and and and and a therapist. But it
helps them, helps a therapist to connect with the kid
more and uh. And it's used to treat cognitive, physical,
and social emotional responses. Right, So I've heard that this
is a treatment for this is a proposed treatment for
(06:50):
kids with autism spectrum disorder, stuff like that. I also
read in this topic that an Emory study is calling
it pretty much bunk. Yeah, it's there. There's a lot
of talk, and he said it's it's fairly controversial. So
while a dolphin may not be able to talk to
your unborn child, um, and they can definitely talk to
(07:12):
each other, and they can basically talk to the environment
around them. They use what we call ecolocation or bio
sonar um to basically bet to send waves of sound
through the water like a submarine, like a bat, you know,
to bounce bounce u sound waves off of objects and
(07:33):
then the waves bounce back and it gives them a
picture of the shape, the distance, and even the surfaces
around them in the water. It's pretty amazing. I read
in Jane McGrath's article about disarming dolphins disarming sea mins
that dolphins can tell this difference between a baby gun
pellet and a kernel of corn at fifty ft away.
(07:53):
This is pretty amazing. I have I have made that
mistake before. So but a dolphin never went into microwave,
But so score one point for the dolphin, your points
for human right there. So how did they actually do
this disarming of the sea minds. Well, the truth is
they don't actually disarm them. They do, however, helpfully point
them out. And what happens is, um, the dolphins learned
(08:16):
to search for mine and after they find one, they
swim back up to a boat because they have to
be taken to the area with the mines. And this
is where um, well animal activists have issues with with
all of it, but um, it's hard to say this
is natural behavior for the dolphin, right. And then they're
flying the dolphin in a sling in a tank, you know,
to wherever the area is, which puts cement stress on
(08:39):
the dolphins immune system. So, um, the wave and their
families more and stress on the dolphins family you don't know.
But anyway, so the dolphin comes up to the surface
and then the guy gives him a treat for finding
the mine, right right, essentially, and then once the once
the dolphin, once they have that interaction, the once they
have the interaction, and the trainer will give the dolphin
(09:02):
an acoustic transponder and it's this device that the animal
take back into the areas spot in the mine, the
device will admit some telltale sound, and um, a diver
will go back down to disarm the mind itself. So
it finds the mind, it reports the mind, then it
tags the mine, and then humans can actually come in
disarm them. Yeah. And one other interesting point, and I
(09:23):
would have thought this too, is that, well, why are
you gonna have dolphins doing that? Aren't they gonna set
off the mind? But actually, um, minds aren't really intended
to be set off by something as natural as marine life. However,
they are intended to go off by say, the presence
of a big ship. Right. So so, yeah, the dolphin
is it's not within the design parameters for a sad weapon.
(09:46):
That's true, Robert, that's true. So that's a That's it's
pretty smart. I certainly cannot spot a c mine. No, Um, well,
I mean I have no idea, but I take your
word for it. I would imagine I couldn't do it.
I feel I feel like I could bump into one
if it was there. But but yeah, I wouldn't be
able to like just go into the water and find one.
Another interesting example, um, of dolphins, and this is one.
(10:07):
This is actually I think a more entertaining example because
it shows them pulling one over their humans masters and
not just simply finding minds for them, which, let's face it,
I mean, the humans kind of got themselves into the
whole mine issue anyway, right, and now they got to
pull the dolphins into it. Yeah, it's ridiculous. But at
the Marine World at Marine World Africa, USA, they had
(10:29):
some some dolphins in the in the tank there and
apparently they would get garbage. Um, you know, garbage would
have blown off off the roof, et cetera and wind
up in the tank. All right, and dolphins are curious,
and they got concerned about the dolphins like finding the
garbage and like eating it and then damaging uh you know,
their their intestines and whatnot. So they started training the
(10:49):
dolphins that if they found garbage, they could bring the
garbage in and receive a tasty fish um as a
treat and as a reward. Right. So it sounds like
a good system, right that the dolphins started started gaming
the system. I love that. Yeah. They figured out that
all right, I find some garbage, I can actually just
hide it at the bottom of the tank near the
filtration system. And then every time I get hungry, I
(11:12):
want a little extra snack, I can go down and
break a little piece off of the roofing shingle or
whatever it is I have squirreled away down there, bring
it up and get my treat. So they, the people
at the at the aquarium, finally figured this out, and
and we're amazed by it. You know what, I'm still
thinking that dolphins are ahead of us, of this whole
smart I don't know. I think that one's a tie.
I think that shows that that, like humans, they can
(11:34):
figure out how to take a seemingly fair system and
manipulate it for their gain. Well, here's something they can
do that we can do too. They can recognize themselves
in the mirror. You wouldn't think that's such a big deal,
but actually, mirror self recognition is considered pretty special in
the animal kingdom. Although lately, when I was looking into
this one, it seems like a lot of animals are
(11:56):
gaining this ability or already had this ability and we
just discovered it. Um like the great apes and pigs
and bottlenose dolphins and hey elephants and even magpies. So
if that kind of puts us on the same plane
as magpies, And so is that is that one for
dolphins or one for us? I think it's I think
it's probably time. Well I have one where I think
(12:19):
they definitely have a speed. Um. All right, my name
is Robert Lamb. Right, I do a Google search for
Robert Lamb, and I get I get me, but and
then I also get like a serial killer and some
guy who like drew stuff for the Heman cartoon. Likewise,
I don't know you have a more distinctive last name,
So do you? There are a couple of als and
lodermulks flitting around. Well, apparently every dolphin has like a
(12:39):
particular whistle that is that signifies who it is. That like, basically,
I wouldn't go so far as to call it a
name because as far as we know, they don't have
a language. But each dolphin has its own whistle. But
they do have a way of communicating. We should say that, yes,
they do communicate, and and they use their sonic abilities
to do that, which is really more of a more
(13:00):
of a nasal think. Most of the sound is generated
um in the nasal cavities, kind of like most country
music that comes out of Nashville. Um, so that that's
how they communicate. And yeah, each one has a signature whistle.
And I don't have a signature whistle. I don't even
really have a signature name. Even if I spell the
whole thing out, that's true. Now they do I although,
how do they know that it's signature? I mean, how
(13:21):
do they know that it's not duplicated within the dolphin pod?
I don't know that. Well, I mean I guess it
would be duplicated in the dolphin pod, but yeah, maybe
like globally, like maybe there's another. And I sure wish
I had rehearsed a fake dolphin whistle, no, because that
would make a good joke. But but no, yeah, how
would add how would they know? And then also where
does where does the whistle come from? Right? Like does
(13:43):
a dolphin at one point wake up and say I
will be you know wha? Yeah exactly, like like did
they just say oh, that's my name or or or
you know, does the mother say, hey, junior, your name
is something another? You know? Maybe they have imagination and
creativity too. Yeah well you well you said that you've
read somewhere that they're capable of of abstraction, right their
(14:06):
brains can generate abstraction. Well, there's a little bit of
debate on this one, you know, whether dolphins can comprehend
abstract concepts like um, love right, sex? Sex is an
interesting one. Um, if we've yeah, we've covered enough to
get into the sex part here. Apparently, UM, dolphins and bonobos,
(14:27):
which is a monkey are the only animals other than
humans that engage in sex for pleasure. There's a whole
article on Snopes about this, most of which goes into
exactly what is um sex for pleasure versus sex purely
for reproductive reasons? And basically this is the the trio
of animals that will actually engage in sex when there's
(14:47):
no possibility of of any kind of a reproductive process
taking place. So kidding, that's kind of been rest So
that's definitely a one for one there. I think they've
they've died us and and but nobos are somewhere in
the mix as well. But that's a separate podcast altogether. Okay.
On a little less boring note, they thought it was
(15:08):
not boring that. I'm sorry, that's not what I want
to say. On a slightly tamor note, Um, dolphins can
use tools. I read about an instance in which I
still don't believe that. I really hope his YouTube video
as well. There is an article about dolphins um using
marine sponges on their beak and they break them off
from the sea bed and they they use them as
(15:31):
a fishing tool, I guess to kind of stop other fish.
They make like it's like an ocean shiv. I don't know,
but I know that it was observed over in a
shark Bay, Australia. And so this is evidence of um.
This is pretty exciting evidence of learned behavior being shared
among dolphins, right this, I mean this is again, this
(15:53):
is one of those things that like tool use is
another thing that we tend to associate with the higher primates.
And here's a dolphin doing it on the ocean. Oh
and then for all of you cooks out there, apparently
dolphins can cook somewhat on a basic level and prepare
food and can prepare food. Right, So, some dolphins have
(16:14):
been observed chasing down their prey cuttlefish, which is sort
of like squid and stuff of that of the cephalopods.
I believe, Yeah, are they Are you sure that I
know they're cute? I know that much. Some of them.
The ones that get query mere adorable, but they get
bigger and get kind of they kind of look like
old bearded men. But the little ones are very adorable. Well, anyway,
(16:37):
the dolphin recipe for cuttlefish go something like this, get
the cuttlefish, you shake it around and get rid of
all that ink in the cuttlefish, because I guess it
doesn't taste all that good. And then you drag said
cuttlefish along the seafloor to get rid of the bones,
and then you eat the cuttlefish. There you go. Julie
Child couldnot do better. Everybody can try that one at home,
(17:00):
tell us how it turns out. So, Robert, I'm kind
of thinking that the dolphins came out ahead in this web.
Maybe I don't know. I've got one more scenario that
I think that. I don't know if this one will
push the dolphins completely ahead or maybe bring it back
in our direction. But um, I found this This awesome
article is a two thousand seven news article out of Australia,
(17:22):
and it said that like apparently about the hundred richest
people in the world, and we're talking like people just
so like grotesquely rich that we can barely comprehend how
they feel their days. You know, we're talking like um,
like Saudi princes and like Russian oil barons. Yeah, these
types of yeah, guys who on in Google. You know,
(17:45):
these these type guys, they can actually afford luxury private submarines.
Like like the people who make these submarines are located
out of Dubai, you know, to give you an idea
on the island that's shaped like a palm tree, yeah,
or Tracy Jordan's face one of the other I can't remember,
but but yeah. So anyway, these hundreds or so guys
are taking these, uh, these submarines out and apparently a
(18:07):
popular thing to do is to go down in front
of the panoramic glass view of the of the of
the of the underwater environment and to like make mad
passionate love to whoever you make mad passionate love to
when you're that rich and uh and they and they
observed it a curious thing happening. Dolphins would come up
to the glass and like watch through the glass and
(18:30):
start like tapping on the glass while they're doing it.
And what is it having me? Do you think? I
don't know? Like I was seeing, Like are they critiquing
what's going on, or clothes the curtain's body, who knows.
But but I mean it's kind of like the mirror thing,
I guess, you know. I mean, how many other animals
come and like tap on windows or are basically voyeurs
(18:51):
A dog maybe dog, I don't know, but but that
one was definitely before which side winds on that one?
Before we get off this, I have to say, I mean,
who first reported this, you know? I think it was
one of those things that arose within the community of
luxury private submarine owners, like I'm guessing may have like
(19:12):
their own magazine, like Luxury Submarine Owners Weekly, you know,
and and and people. I mean, apparently people were like
complaining about it, and they were like, what are we
gonna do? And basically the only idea that came out
is like, well, we should put up curtains or just
get used to dolphins hanging out all right? So so
where does that put us? I don't know. On one hand,
(19:34):
dolphins are kind of creepy and looking in on rich
guys doing it, And on the other hand, humans are
spending awful lot of money to go down and do
it underwater. So it's like we're both kind of creepy
in that regard, I guess, and equally smart. Maybe dolphins
get the I think I'm going to give dolphins the
fish on this one. So if you want to read
(19:56):
more about your favorite animals, whether they're dolphins or ants
or actually, all right, all right, if you want to
read more about cuttlefish, why don't you do head on
over or swim on over to how stuff freak dot
com and also check out the blogs that blogs that
how stuff works dot com, where we right about just
about everything from dolphins to uh, you know, preepy Russian billionaires.
(20:18):
All right, thanks for listening, guys, See you next time
for moralness and thousands of other topics. Is that how
stuff works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check
out our blogs on the house stuff works dot com
home page
Welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how stuff
works dot com. Hey, guys, welcome to the podcast. This
is Alison that don't milk, the science editor at how
stuff works dot com. And this is Robert Lambs, science
writerer at how stuff works dot com. So a while back,
(00:23):
you guys can't see me, but I was as big
as a house because I had a baby. You had
a baby, That's right. You were gone for months at
a time there, and you just thought I went to
a ruba, But no, I was out on maternity leave. Yeah,
I thought you went to a ruba and that just
came back with an extra kid. But so do you
know where I had this uh, this baby? A hospital,
(00:44):
I believe, and that would be a good guess. And
that is where I did actually have said baby, although
in the nick of time because baby came fast. Who um.
But I found out after the fact that maybe I
should have investigated another birthing option, mean like a like
a like a cool or a birthing swing or something.
We're making that up. Is there such a swing? But yeah,
(01:08):
maybe a pool. I've been interested in the idea of
water birth or even a home birth or a home
water birth. Um. But it turns out that I missed.
I missed the boat I could have I could have
had a baby in the ocean with a dolphin assisting me,
and you would have needed to be on a boat
for that probably. Well, yeah, that's true, a dolphin doula.
(01:28):
So today we're gonna be talking about dolphins, and uh
there's a huge amount of quackery surrounding dolphins and also
some pretty cool science and a lot of it seemingly
to uh surround the whole topic of having a dolphin
president at your present, at your birth. There's a lot
of interconnection between dolphins and babies. So tell me more
about this, this dolphin doola. How does this work? Well,
(01:50):
there's an outfit in Hawaii called the Serious Institute. Serious
is in the name of satellite radio or the constellation,
as opposed to are you serious? Not like serious science?
Gotcha right? Rich? Um, So these people at this institute
decided that, um, underwater birth was a good thing, and
they also decided that, um, there's a clear therapeutic value
(02:13):
of dolphins. And so what would be the next logical step.
We'll put the two together. A water birth with dolphins. Well,
I mean, I think this Cigaroos concert is pretty relaxing,
but I wouldn't want to have a baby there. Um,
it just seems kind of weird. It does seem kind
of weird. I saw a video of it on the internet,
(02:35):
because the Internet has these kinds of things, and I
was on YouTube, and um, it was it was kind
of odd. And who knows if this video is real.
Of course, anything can be faked. I realized that. But
there was a woman with a you know, a very
big belly and a bikini and uh well part of
a bikini, and a baby coming out, and and a
dolphin nosing around in parts that I would not want
(02:55):
a dolphin nosing around. And when I was giving birth
the baby clearly real. In the it was very hard
to make out because because the dolphin could have been
a puppet too. I mean, I don't think it was
a dolphin puppet, but hey, it might have been. The
baby was kind of murky, and the photography or the
videography underwater it's not of It's not of good quality. Anyway.
(03:16):
Penn and Teller wound up interviewing these guys on their
showtime show Bullshit, and they did, in fact call on
this not no surprise there. Well, it's it's interesting. Actually
have some more bulle if you will, surrounding human births
and dolphins. UM. I can't say for a fact that
if you go there now you can find this program,
(03:38):
but at least previously at Hotel Lost Dolphins in Lima, Peru,
they had a program going there for a while where
pregnant women would come by like once a week and
in fifteen minute sessions they would hang out with the
dolphins there at the hotel in the tank. They weren't guessed,
you know, part of the decoration, I guess if you
if you will, and they would the whole cell on
(04:00):
this or or the large part of it anyway, was
that the dolphins are shooting out all these ultrasonic waves
you know they use. The dolphins are heavy into using
their sound, right. Um. So the idea is that these
ultrasonic waves are going to like reach out and touch
your baby and make your baby develop faster or smarter,
you know, or be able to talk to fish and
(04:22):
he or she grows up. Right, And I hate to
even say there's a little truth to that, but there's
a two thousand and eight study that's pretty interesting, UM
from a team of neuroscientists at Arizona State University, and
they were looking at ways to use ultrasound to stimulate
like specific brain circuitry um and and using that as
(04:43):
a way to to treat things like Alzheimer's disease and
Parkinson's disease and epilepsy and things of that nature. So, yes,
there's there's truth to the idea that ultrasonic waves can
be used beneficially on the human mind. UM. Not a
lot to support the idea that that dolphins can use
(05:03):
sound waves to make your baby better. Um. Right, And
you can just back away from dolphins one step more
and say that you know, stimulation, um, like any external stimuli,
whether it be music or a dolphin um and and
a Mozart CDs a lot cheaper, I think, Yeah, which
manteresting the question how much was this dolphin fifteen minute session?
I wonder how much they had to pay for it? Um.
(05:25):
I understand it was pretty pricey. But but here's the
interesting thing. You know, they talked to the women afterwards.
You know, they're taught, like like you said, they're they're
they're feeling the baby move and any number of stimm
stimuli can actually you know, cause that that sort of
thing to happen. But then also they're talking about like, oh,
the mother was was calmed just just by being around
the dolphins. Like you said, dolphins have a very calming effect,
(05:46):
and that plays in UM into a lot of the
same territory as a dolphin assisted therapy, which is one
thing before we go into the next instance of dolphins
being used in a fairly interesting way. UM, you guys
need to actually kind of picture this. There's it's not
a woman who's swimming around in the pool. It's it's
a woman with her Well, the pictures are of a
(06:09):
woman like kneeling by the side of a pool with
her belly exposed, and the dolphins actually kind of like nuzzling.
But yes, it it's a it's reminiscent to of this
dolphin assisted therapy UM program, which is just another animal
assisted therapy program. You frequently see this involving horses where
you take often children and you put them in there
(06:30):
with animals and and and and a therapist. But it
helps them, helps a therapist to connect with the kid
more and uh. And it's used to treat cognitive, physical,
and social emotional responses. Right, So I've heard that this
is a treatment for this is a proposed treatment for
(06:50):
kids with autism spectrum disorder, stuff like that. I also
read in this topic that an Emory study is calling
it pretty much bunk. Yeah, it's there. There's a lot
of talk, and he said it's it's fairly controversial. So
while a dolphin may not be able to talk to
your unborn child, um, and they can definitely talk to
(07:12):
each other, and they can basically talk to the environment
around them. They use what we call ecolocation or bio
sonar um to basically bet to send waves of sound
through the water like a submarine, like a bat, you know,
to bounce bounce u sound waves off of objects and
(07:33):
then the waves bounce back and it gives them a
picture of the shape, the distance, and even the surfaces
around them in the water. It's pretty amazing. I read
in Jane McGrath's article about disarming dolphins disarming sea mins
that dolphins can tell this difference between a baby gun
pellet and a kernel of corn at fifty ft away.
(07:53):
This is pretty amazing. I have I have made that
mistake before. So but a dolphin never went into microwave,
But so score one point for the dolphin, your points
for human right there. So how did they actually do
this disarming of the sea minds. Well, the truth is
they don't actually disarm them. They do, however, helpfully point
them out. And what happens is, um, the dolphins learned
(08:16):
to search for mine and after they find one, they
swim back up to a boat because they have to
be taken to the area with the mines. And this
is where um, well animal activists have issues with with
all of it, but um, it's hard to say this
is natural behavior for the dolphin, right. And then they're
flying the dolphin in a sling in a tank, you know,
to wherever the area is, which puts cement stress on
(08:39):
the dolphins immune system. So, um, the wave and their
families more and stress on the dolphins family you don't know.
But anyway, so the dolphin comes up to the surface
and then the guy gives him a treat for finding
the mine, right right, essentially, and then once the once
the dolphin, once they have that interaction, the once they
have the interaction, and the trainer will give the dolphin
(09:02):
an acoustic transponder and it's this device that the animal
take back into the areas spot in the mine, the
device will admit some telltale sound, and um, a diver
will go back down to disarm the mind itself. So
it finds the mind, it reports the mind, then it
tags the mine, and then humans can actually come in
disarm them. Yeah. And one other interesting point, and I
(09:23):
would have thought this too, is that, well, why are
you gonna have dolphins doing that? Aren't they gonna set
off the mind? But actually, um, minds aren't really intended
to be set off by something as natural as marine life. However,
they are intended to go off by say, the presence
of a big ship. Right. So so, yeah, the dolphin
is it's not within the design parameters for a sad weapon.
(09:46):
That's true, Robert, that's true. So that's a That's it's
pretty smart. I certainly cannot spot a c mine. No, Um, well,
I mean I have no idea, but I take your
word for it. I would imagine I couldn't do it.
I feel I feel like I could bump into one
if it was there. But but yeah, I wouldn't be
able to like just go into the water and find one.
Another interesting example, um, of dolphins, and this is one.
(10:07):
This is actually I think a more entertaining example because
it shows them pulling one over their humans masters and
not just simply finding minds for them, which, let's face it,
I mean, the humans kind of got themselves into the
whole mine issue anyway, right, and now they got to
pull the dolphins into it. Yeah, it's ridiculous. But at
the Marine World at Marine World Africa, USA, they had
(10:29):
some some dolphins in the in the tank there and
apparently they would get garbage. Um, you know, garbage would
have blown off off the roof, et cetera and wind
up in the tank. All right, and dolphins are curious,
and they got concerned about the dolphins like finding the
garbage and like eating it and then damaging uh you know,
their their intestines and whatnot. So they started training the
(10:49):
dolphins that if they found garbage, they could bring the
garbage in and receive a tasty fish um as a
treat and as a reward. Right. So it sounds like
a good system, right that the dolphins started started gaming
the system. I love that. Yeah. They figured out that
all right, I find some garbage, I can actually just
hide it at the bottom of the tank near the
filtration system. And then every time I get hungry, I
(11:12):
want a little extra snack, I can go down and
break a little piece off of the roofing shingle or
whatever it is I have squirreled away down there, bring
it up and get my treat. So they, the people
at the at the aquarium, finally figured this out, and
and we're amazed by it. You know what, I'm still
thinking that dolphins are ahead of us, of this whole
smart I don't know. I think that one's a tie.
I think that shows that that, like humans, they can
(11:34):
figure out how to take a seemingly fair system and
manipulate it for their gain. Well, here's something they can
do that we can do too. They can recognize themselves
in the mirror. You wouldn't think that's such a big deal,
but actually, mirror self recognition is considered pretty special in
the animal kingdom. Although lately, when I was looking into
this one, it seems like a lot of animals are
(11:56):
gaining this ability or already had this ability and we
just discovered it. Um like the great apes and pigs
and bottlenose dolphins and hey elephants and even magpies. So
if that kind of puts us on the same plane
as magpies, And so is that is that one for
dolphins or one for us? I think it's I think
it's probably time. Well I have one where I think
(12:19):
they definitely have a speed. Um. All right, my name
is Robert Lamb. Right, I do a Google search for
Robert Lamb, and I get I get me, but and
then I also get like a serial killer and some
guy who like drew stuff for the Heman cartoon. Likewise,
I don't know you have a more distinctive last name,
So do you? There are a couple of als and
lodermulks flitting around. Well, apparently every dolphin has like a
(12:39):
particular whistle that is that signifies who it is. That like, basically,
I wouldn't go so far as to call it a
name because as far as we know, they don't have
a language. But each dolphin has its own whistle. But
they do have a way of communicating. We should say that, yes,
they do communicate, and and they use their sonic abilities
to do that, which is really more of a more
(13:00):
of a nasal think. Most of the sound is generated
um in the nasal cavities, kind of like most country
music that comes out of Nashville. Um, so that that's
how they communicate. And yeah, each one has a signature whistle.
And I don't have a signature whistle. I don't even
really have a signature name. Even if I spell the
whole thing out, that's true. Now they do I although,
how do they know that it's signature? I mean, how
(13:21):
do they know that it's not duplicated within the dolphin pod?
I don't know that. Well, I mean I guess it
would be duplicated in the dolphin pod, but yeah, maybe
like globally, like maybe there's another. And I sure wish
I had rehearsed a fake dolphin whistle, no, because that
would make a good joke. But but no, yeah, how
would add how would they know? And then also where
does where does the whistle come from? Right? Like does
(13:43):
a dolphin at one point wake up and say I
will be you know wha? Yeah exactly, like like did
they just say oh, that's my name or or or
you know, does the mother say, hey, junior, your name
is something another? You know? Maybe they have imagination and
creativity too. Yeah well you well you said that you've
read somewhere that they're capable of of abstraction, right their
(14:06):
brains can generate abstraction. Well, there's a little bit of
debate on this one, you know, whether dolphins can comprehend
abstract concepts like um, love right, sex? Sex is an
interesting one. Um, if we've yeah, we've covered enough to
get into the sex part here. Apparently, UM, dolphins and bonobos,
(14:27):
which is a monkey are the only animals other than
humans that engage in sex for pleasure. There's a whole
article on Snopes about this, most of which goes into
exactly what is um sex for pleasure versus sex purely
for reproductive reasons? And basically this is the the trio
of animals that will actually engage in sex when there's
(14:47):
no possibility of of any kind of a reproductive process
taking place. So kidding, that's kind of been rest So
that's definitely a one for one there. I think they've
they've died us and and but nobos are somewhere in
the mix as well. But that's a separate podcast altogether. Okay.
On a little less boring note, they thought it was
(15:08):
not boring that. I'm sorry, that's not what I want
to say. On a slightly tamor note, Um, dolphins can
use tools. I read about an instance in which I
still don't believe that. I really hope his YouTube video
as well. There is an article about dolphins um using
marine sponges on their beak and they break them off
from the sea bed and they they use them as
(15:31):
a fishing tool, I guess to kind of stop other fish.
They make like it's like an ocean shiv. I don't know,
but I know that it was observed over in a
shark Bay, Australia. And so this is evidence of um.
This is pretty exciting evidence of learned behavior being shared
among dolphins, right this, I mean this is again, this
(15:53):
is one of those things that like tool use is
another thing that we tend to associate with the higher primates.
And here's a dolphin doing it on the ocean. Oh
and then for all of you cooks out there, apparently
dolphins can cook somewhat on a basic level and prepare
food and can prepare food. Right, So, some dolphins have
(16:14):
been observed chasing down their prey cuttlefish, which is sort
of like squid and stuff of that of the cephalopods.
I believe, Yeah, are they Are you sure that I
know they're cute? I know that much. Some of them.
The ones that get query mere adorable, but they get
bigger and get kind of they kind of look like
old bearded men. But the little ones are very adorable. Well, anyway,
(16:37):
the dolphin recipe for cuttlefish go something like this, get
the cuttlefish, you shake it around and get rid of
all that ink in the cuttlefish, because I guess it
doesn't taste all that good. And then you drag said
cuttlefish along the seafloor to get rid of the bones,
and then you eat the cuttlefish. There you go. Julie
Child couldnot do better. Everybody can try that one at home,
(17:00):
tell us how it turns out. So, Robert, I'm kind
of thinking that the dolphins came out ahead in this web.
Maybe I don't know. I've got one more scenario that
I think that. I don't know if this one will
push the dolphins completely ahead or maybe bring it back
in our direction. But um, I found this This awesome
article is a two thousand seven news article out of Australia,
(17:22):
and it said that like apparently about the hundred richest
people in the world, and we're talking like people just
so like grotesquely rich that we can barely comprehend how
they feel their days. You know, we're talking like um,
like Saudi princes and like Russian oil barons. Yeah, these
types of yeah, guys who on in Google. You know,
(17:45):
these these type guys, they can actually afford luxury private submarines.
Like like the people who make these submarines are located
out of Dubai, you know, to give you an idea
on the island that's shaped like a palm tree, yeah,
or Tracy Jordan's face one of the other I can't remember,
but but yeah. So anyway, these hundreds or so guys
are taking these, uh, these submarines out and apparently a
(18:07):
popular thing to do is to go down in front
of the panoramic glass view of the of the of
the of the underwater environment and to like make mad
passionate love to whoever you make mad passionate love to
when you're that rich and uh and they and they
observed it a curious thing happening. Dolphins would come up
to the glass and like watch through the glass and
(18:30):
start like tapping on the glass while they're doing it.
And what is it having me? Do you think? I
don't know? Like I was seeing, Like are they critiquing
what's going on, or clothes the curtain's body, who knows.
But but I mean it's kind of like the mirror thing,
I guess, you know. I mean, how many other animals
come and like tap on windows or are basically voyeurs
(18:51):
A dog maybe dog, I don't know, but but that
one was definitely before which side winds on that one?
Before we get off this, I have to say, I mean,
who first reported this, you know? I think it was
one of those things that arose within the community of
luxury private submarine owners, like I'm guessing may have like
(19:12):
their own magazine, like Luxury Submarine Owners Weekly, you know,
and and and people. I mean, apparently people were like
complaining about it, and they were like, what are we
gonna do? And basically the only idea that came out
is like, well, we should put up curtains or just
get used to dolphins hanging out all right? So so
where does that put us? I don't know. On one hand,
(19:34):
dolphins are kind of creepy and looking in on rich
guys doing it, And on the other hand, humans are
spending awful lot of money to go down and do
it underwater. So it's like we're both kind of creepy
in that regard, I guess, and equally smart. Maybe dolphins
get the I think I'm going to give dolphins the
fish on this one. So if you want to read
(19:56):
more about your favorite animals, whether they're dolphins or ants
or actually, all right, all right, if you want to
read more about cuttlefish, why don't you do head on
over or swim on over to how stuff freak dot
com and also check out the blogs that blogs that
how stuff works dot com, where we right about just
about everything from dolphins to uh, you know, preepy Russian billionaires.
(20:18):
All right, thanks for listening, guys, See you next time
for moralness and thousands of other topics. Is that how
stuff works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check
out our blogs on the house stuff works dot com
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