Marine mammals can remember their friends after 20 years apart, study says. Sorry, elephants: Dolphins have taken the top spot for best memory, at least for now.
In several surprising instances, dolphins have also shown loving emotions towards humans. The most fascinating of these examples is that of Margaret Howe and the bottlenose dolphin Peter. In the 1970s, Howe was conducting research with Peter in an attempt to teach the dolphin to communicate in English.
The bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) is one of the species known to use auditory (vocal) cues for individual recognition.
All the same, regardless of how unusual it might be when compared with other animal species, there is a stack of good scientific evidence that documents curious and friendly dolphin behaviour involving human beings, which is probably enough to support the idea that dolphins have an affinity for humans.
Dolphins have a remarkable long-term memory and can remember specific individuals, sounds, and even tasks they learned in the past. In fact, studies have shown that dolphins can remember things for up to 20 years or more, which is longer than most other animals.
The new research shows that dolphins have the longest memory yet known in any species other than people. Elephants and chimpanzees are thought to have similar abilities, but they haven't yet been tested, said study author Jason Bruck, an animal behaviorist at the University of Chicago.
Some scientists believe that dolphins instinctively come to the assistance of other injured dolphins and that it's a small step for them to help humans too. However dolphins obviously realise that humans aren't dolphins. Some scientists think dolphins help humans merely because they are curious.
Humans and dolphins do have some romantic history
In fact, seven per cent of zoophiles (humans sexually attracted to animals) named dolphins as their preferred choice of mate. Some studies have also found evidence male dolphins are sexually attracted to women as they give off similar pheromones to female dolphins.
It is not known exactly why this is, but there appears to be an innate affinity. Many studies have found that when a dolphin cannot find friends of its own species, it often turns to humans for companionship instead. Dolphins are also known to follow along with fishing boats and those who are snorkeling.
Dolphins use echolocation to create an impression of the world around them.
When they want to. When they feel safe and free to escape. In the wild, dolphins engage in considerable touching behavior. However, it would be unwise and potentially dangerous to assume that any dolphin you encounter wants to be petted.
Dolphins produce whistles during social situations, when separated from friends, when excited, when happy and when panicked. Different whistles are produced in different situations, and scientists have been attempting to catalog and categorize whistles from study populations for some time.
In reality, dolphins have saved humans on many occasions. In two (sort of) similar incidents, one in 2004 and one in 2007, pods of dolphins circled imperiled surfers for over thirty minutes in order to ward off aggressive great white sharks.
DO NOT TOUCH the dolphins. If the dolphins want physical contact with people, they will initiate it. If you try to touch one dolphin, then all the dolphins invariably leave the area. Not only does this adversely affect dolphin behavior but it irritates the other people with your group since everyone loses on the swim.
So, how smart are dolphins? Well, it's believed that dolphins are actually the second smartest animal on the planet, next to humans. And yes, even smarter than primates. With a high brain-to-body weight ratio, dolphins are capable of complex problem solving and understanding abstract situations.
Dolphins' Internal Structure
Dolphins are not only known for being exceptionally clever, but they also possess distinct features like highly developed social skills and self-awareness, which propel their playful nature. Dolphins, like humans, require social structure for communication, breeding, and protection.
In studying the dolphins over two and a half decades, the researchers have discovered that as dolphins grow older, they develop many of the same age-related conditions as humans.
The discovery of spindle cells in the brains of some whale and dolphin species provides good supporting evidence that these species may be capable of experiencing complex emotions such as empathy and indeed that this emotion may provide an important evolutionary advantage for these highly social species.
Although dolphins may seem curious, many of their behaviors are often misinterpreted as “friendly” when they actually are, in fact, signs of disturbance or aggression. If a dolphin approaches you in the water, do not engage, pursue, or otherwise interact with the dolphin, and take immediate steps to move away.
Whenever a member of the group is in danger from a shark, the rest of the pod rushes in to defend their buddy. Dolphins have even been known to protect humans in danger of sharks.
In conclusion, the combination of dolphins' intelligence, physical abilities, and social structure, as well as their potential to produce an electrical field, makes them formidable predators in the ocean, and this is why sharks are often so afraid of them.
Bees' short-term memory is quite weak, despite their unique abilities. A comparable study on chimpanzees found that bees had the worst memory, with a recall duration of just 2.5 seconds. Also earning bees a spot on the list of top 10 animals with the worst memory in the world.
Ted once told Sam that a goldfish was the happiest animal in the world, because it had a ten-second memory. He then encouraged the player to "be a goldfish".