dolphin intelligence

[derf]

how smart are dolphins?

[Hamish]

It depend on if they are wareing jeans and a T-shirt or a Tux / Ball gown.

[Unabashed]

Harmish you crack me up.....

[snaykz]

Only humans and chimpanzees are more intelligent than dolphins, and these three species are the only ones in the world who are 'self aware', meaning they are intelligent enough to realise they are alive and aren't driven purely by animal instinct. A dolphin is intelligent enough to recognise itself in a mirror, whereas the vast majority of animals would think it was another member of the species. After a couple of years of keeping tropical fish, I still see my fish trying to fight with their own reflections from time to time.

[snaykz]

By the way, I find wildwood's comments greatly exaggerated. The extent of damage humans have done to the enviroment is questionable at best. Global warming for example is a natural process, as is global cooling, and both have been occuring on Earth at different times for tens of millions of years, as any geoscientist will tell you. The only 'realistic' way in which the human race would die out in the next hundred years would be from the Earth being hit by an asteroid, the odds of which are millions to one. Even a global nuclear war would leave survivors as humans are so versatile and can live in a range of conditions. Humans are one of only two mammals to inhabit every continent on Earth. The other...mice.

[snaykz]

Sorry Einstein, I'm not convinced. Temperatures in London 100 years ago were as warm as they are today before they fell and rose again, all in the last hundred years, which suggests temperatures can fluctuate naturally over reasonably short periods of time. It is also believed that the 13th century was significantly hotter in Britain than it is today (although temperature measurements were of course no where near as accurate). One large volcanic eruption such as might occur every couple of years somewhere on the Earth, throws up more pollution in a few hours than all the pollution created by humans in the history of our race. When Krakatoa erupted in the 19th century, it turned the sky red for weeks on the other side of the world, due to all the contaminents it had thrown up. No doubt pollution in cities is a genuine problem, causing increases in resiratory diseases, but the idea that modern human living makes any significant difference in the overall climate on Earth is doubtful, according to an increasing number of scientists and organisations who claim to be experts in the field. NASA for one publicly downplayed any human influence on global warming a few years ago. Although certainly no expert, I did study long and short term global climate change at degree level 3 years ago, including its likely causes. No doubt the issue is still open to interpretation, but I just wanted to put my case across. Sorry to have gone off subject, I'm sure we were talking about dolphins...