Page 114 - World of Animals - Book of Sharks & Ocean Predators

Sharks & Ocean Predators
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Emotional intelligence

Feelings of happiness, love and heartbreak are
human concepts but these animals share our
ability to feel emotion
These animals form extremely close bonds with
their families and experience emotions that
humans might call love. Newborn dolphins rely
on their mothers and older siblings for survival
and calves stay with their family for around six
years. When a relative dies, dolphins experience
grief and mother dolphins carry their lost calves
around with them for extended periods of time.
Young that have lost their mother are known to
visit their mother’s favourite locations after her
death. When a dolphin group spies a dolphin
carcass they approach it and even take it in turns
to surface for a breath of air so the corpse isn’t
left unattended.
Dolphins are famous for their tendency to
help animals of other species. There are reports
of dolphins helping exhausted seals back to
shore and even leading beached whales back to
the safety of deep water. In 2008, a bottlenose
dolphin arrived at the scene of a stranded mother-
calf pair of pygmy sperm whales on a beach in
New Zealand. The dolphin, known by locals as
Moko, led the pair of whales from the shallows
directly into deeper water. The only explanation
of this behaviour is that dolphins are capable of
experiencing empathy.

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4
EQ level

“Young that have lost their 2

mother are known to visit What is EQ?
Encephalisation quotient is a
their mother’s favourite comparison of the size of an
animal’s brain and its overall
locations after her death” body size – dolphins have an 0
extremely high score

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