Page 113 - World of Animals - Book of Sharks & Ocean Predators

Dolphins
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Bottlenose
dolphins have Proving
been seen self-awareness
to recognise
themselves in Dr Diana Reiss is a world-renowned
the mirror!
dolphin expert. She led the team
that proved dolphins can recognise
themselves in a mirror
“At my lab in 2001
I did a study with
a very simple
design. You’re
asking if a dolphin
understands that
what they see in
the mirror is an
external representation of themselves.
We exposed dolphins to a mirror and
we gave them time to learn about how
mirrors work. We saw three basic
stages the animals went through
to show that they could recognise
themselves. The first stage we call
social behaviour. The animals try to
touch the mirror, look around behind
it as if there’s another dolphin there.
When seeing their reflection they
reacted as if they were seeing another
of their own kind. Most animals never
get past this stage.
“The second stage we saw emerging
was more than just testing the mirror.
The animals seemed to be testing
what was happening in the mirror
image when they did certain things.
That is when the light bulb went on.
That’s when they knew that they were
seeing themselves in the mirror.
“In the third stage, the animals
shi ed to self-directed behaviour. They
examined themselves in the mirror,
looking at parts of their body that were
otherwise not visible. They looked at
their eyes, inside their mouths and
made unusual movements in front of
the mirror. They were using the mirror
as a tool to view themselves.
“We went on to do what’s called a
mark test. We put the mirror into the
water for 30 minutes every few days
and watched the behaviour of the
dolphins. We then called them over
and marked their bodies in different
places with a non-toxic marker. They
immediately raced to the mirror to
examine the marked area.”

Just like us
As humans, we tend to underestimate other animals, believing our behaviour is unique
to us. But dolphins share a few of our traits, showing some extreme intelligence
Dolphins can eavesdrop Dolphins can deceive each other
Dolphins have communication abilities that were The ability to follow another animal’s gaze shows
once thought to be unique to humans. Their immense intelligence and human children begin
ability to eavesdrop gives us a clue as to how to develop this skill after the first year of life.
clever dolphins are. Not only can they listen in to Dolphins use this skill to tell what others are looking
other conversations, but they can also divide their at without needing to communicate about it.
attention between their own vocalisations and Dolphins can draw another’s attention to an object
other sounds at the same time. This maximises the by pointing at it. In fact, these mammals can even
information they are taking in. deceive one another by directing it elsewhere.

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