http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=9952098&ch=4226714&src=news
These creatures are, you know, SMART.
They are also, you know, quite](http://www.spike.com/video/hunter-hunted/2763525%22%3Equite) violent.
djm
Well, they are hard on sharks, no question.
And I would suppose dolphin attacks on humans
are very rare. And, it would seem, provoked
by foolish behaviour. I’ve been swimming in the ocean
when dolphins arrived–I left.
Dolphins are indeed quite intelligent. Perhaps as bright as humans. Maybe even more so if you’re Douglas Adams.
My guess is they would be the dominant species on the planet if only they had opposeable thumbs.
Being the dominant species is overrated.
Also I suppose rats dominate, or some bug.
I wonder how smart dolphins are.
For instance that behaviour in the video probably isn’t instinctual.
So the dolphin thinks ‘This dolphin is in trouble,
can’t breathe, so I will hold her up to the surface.’
But to think that thought, somehow, even if
not in words, the dolphin
must be self-aware. So it would seem that
dolphins know they exist, they’re self-aware creatures,
or, as philosophers say, persons.
There’re pink ones live in the Amazon River in South America.
Like putting sentient beings in an aqurium. Or destroying their environment.
Out on the ocean, I’ve sometimes seen hundreds of jumping playing dolphins. They come up to the boat to have a look at me, and it is quite clear that they are aware that they are looking at another being on the deck of the boat.
There are several stories of boats being saved from running up on a reef at night by being warned by dolphins. How do the dolphins know that it dangerous for a boat and her crew to head for a reef when it is not dangerous for a dolphin?
Owen
Also stories of people shipwrecked and swimming in the
sea who are pushed to land by dolphins. The response
is that we never heard the stories of the people the
dolphins pushed the other way.