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Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

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Re: Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

#61

Post by pvaldes »

gruseom wrote: post #12

John Lilly, who spent years working with dolphins, believed that they were smart enough to be cute and friendly to humans because they understood how dangerous we were.

Not necessarily.

Most of the time the people think about how cute is a dolphin is misunderstanding the animal. If a Lion shows you the teeth, you don't think is a cute kitty, is angry!, but, hey, this dolphin that show us the teeth "is smiling"!. This "smile" is in fact an agressive display in the wild.

Being faster, well armed, and better fitted for water, a dolphin can avoid dangerous humans in the water any time he wants. In fact a lot of alone exemplars search for company, actively, even if is from humans, and are curious. Some dolphins simply like the human company, or the benefits derived of this, other not... at all.

Re: Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

#62

Post by bilbo0s »

prawn wrote: post #46
srean wrote: post #6

They are also known to build difficult to make toys (air bubble vortex rings) to entertain themselves. They have to discover how to make it. Sometimes they can be quite possessive, they would break the toy if someone not so knowledgeable wants to play with it. Once a dolphin figures it out how to make one, his/her peers eventually figure it out too. So it kind of spreads within a group like fashion. This behavior has…

I wonder if there is a wider gap between the smartest and dumbest humans, and the equivalent extremes in other species? At our best, we accomplish astonishing things that melt brains to consider. However, the worst of us really are little more than what they would call (with derision) "animals", responding to base urges and the like, but dangerous, vindictive and controlling.

"...dangerous, vindictive and controlling..."

I think the low end of human "intelligence" is something other than what you are talking about here. I think the low end of human "intelligence" would generally be associated with something more akin to mental retardation. Whereas what you're pointing out is more... like the behavior of a sociopath.

Dangerous, vindictive and controlling is not a sign of a lack of intelligence... in fact... it's probably the opposite I would imagine.

Re: Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

#63

Post by s-v »

leoh wrote: post #57
mtrimpe wrote: post #3

Dolphins are exactly why I feel SETI is such a misguided (in a sweet way) effort. Here we are, searching for extraterrestrial intelligence while we can't even communicate with the other intelligent species on our own planet. Glad to see we're making progress though!

I feel the same way about projects looking into habitation of foreign planets. The science and the engineering behind the endeavor is interesting, but why seriously not start thinking about and practicing sustainability in places like Antarctica?

Colonizing another planet is a hedge against a destructive event (asteroid, bomb, etc) completely extinguishing the human species.

Re: Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

#64

Post by lifeisstillgood »

stcredzero wrote: post #47
srean wrote: post #6

They are also known to build difficult to make toys (air bubble vortex rings) to entertain themselves. They have to discover how to make it. Sometimes they can be quite possessive, they would break the toy if someone not so knowledgeable wants to play with it. Once a dolphin figures it out how to make one, his/her peers eventually figure it out too. So it kind of spreads within a group like fashion. This behavior has…

> They also have what appears to be fratricide were they bludgeon another to death targeting vital organs Apparently Orcas have developed this Kung-fu like thing, where they can kill a shark by just holding it . http://worldtourwhilediving.com/2012/01/13/orca-flips-over-g...

This is a form of "tonic immobility" in sharks (chickens have the same reaction if held whilst looking at a line drawn away from them)

It's an attempt to feign death / stand immobile whilst danger passes.

Its effective in sharks as they need water passing over their gills so if they stop swimming they are dependant on current.

Of course orcas are big enough to turn a shark over - your average guy in a chain mail suit tries this with Jaws' older brother and it's three months of trying to get steel rings out of your teeth

Re: Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

#65

Post by yareally »

pyre wrote: post #26
yareally wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parrots call each other by names as well[1] and crows have been shown to speak in two different dialects depending if they are with a group or among individuals[2]. In the same link about crows, they have also been seen using tools in the wild and in experiments using "meta tools", something that only primates have been observed doing (using one tool to reach another tool that will be used for their end goal [general…

A Murder Of Crows was done in concert w/ CBC, though they may have done their own post-production work (I've only watched the PBS version). Canadians should probably look to the CBC[1] to watch it. There's also an interesting blurb from the director here[2]. [1]: http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2009/murderof... [2]: http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2009/murderof...

Wow, that second link was a really good article. Thanks for sharing. I didn't realize crows were that camera shy or observant that people were watching them back.

Makes sense though they they would be paranoid when someone or some thing is paying them too much attention as 99% of the time it means something bad will come next.

Re: Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

#66

Post by mjmahone17 »

shmageggy wrote: post #58
Catalina wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modern culture is filled with prejudices towards non-human forms of life. Not only are animals taken for granted and exploited for the well-being of the human species, which is wrongfully considered a "superior" life form, but life itself is taken for granted. Realizing just "now" that non-human life forms are more complex than we thought is simply because our ability to even be open minded about that possibility was…

Not just modern culture, but really for the history of civilization. In fact, discoveries like these are starting to make us more empathetic, finally. During the 18th century, not only were all non-humans considered mindless automatons, many humans were too. The early descriptions of indigenous people by the European whites are pretty appalling.

It's ironic in its own way, given how many (not all, but many) of the indigineous groups treated animals and their ecosystems with more respect than they were given by other humans. In a lot of ways, it seems like we're having to relearn a lot of the values that cultures with longer histories have known for hundreds of years.

Re: Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

#67

Post by knowaveragejoe »

crucialfelix wrote: post #29

I went through a Cetacean and cephalopods obsession last year. What really freaks me out is what Dolphins looked like when they were still land animals: http://understanddolphins.tripod.com/dolphinevolution.html Also the perceptual systems of octopus and squid are amazing. Cuttlefish can perceive the polarization of light. This helps for contrast and edge detection. Many Cephalopods (octopuses, squid, cuttlefish) can…

> We have a very limited sense of space and an all too focused sense of self. But we have a lot of oil and we can dig shit up and drive around real fast and think we are really important.

We can also appreciate these things as no other species on Earth can, to the best of our knowledge.

Re: Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

#68

Post by dchichkov »

As far as I know Royal Penguins also can call each other by name. And can distinguish a call from afar in the noise of hundreds of other penguins calling each other. There must be a lot of redundancy in the call, I guess.

Also penguins sound totally like one of these old 14400 baud modems ;)

Re: Dolphins Call Each Other By Name

#70

Post by weavejester »

yesbabyyes wrote: post #38
weavejester wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SETI is about finding alien signals, not necessarily understanding them. However, it's likely that any extraterrestrial intelligence capable of sending out signals powerful enough to reach us, will have an understanding of science and mathematics, which is more than we have in common with dolphins.

That sounds very intriguing. However, it's likely that any extraterrestrial intelligence capable of maintaining life on it's home planet, will have an understanding of their fellow life forms, which is more than we have.

What makes you say that? It doesn't take too much knowledge to maintain a biosphere, otherwise it would have collapsed long before humans arrived on Earth. It seems more to do with how cautious you want to be, how far a race is willing to push the environment in return for faster progress.

I also suspect that any extraterrestrial intelligence capable of making a signal detectable by our equipment would have given up its biological roots a long time ago, as life as we know it is badly adapted for space travel.

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