intelligence

The bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) is a remarkable marine mammal known for its unusually high level of intelligence. In fact, the bottlenose dolphin is the second most encephalized being on the planet after humans, meaning that they have a very large brain-to-body ratio (Grimm, 2017). The encephalization quotient (EQ) is defined as the ratio between predicted and observed brain mass for an animal of a given size. This large brain size along with other complex portions of the brain account for the great intelligence of this species. Encephalization quotient data actually suggests that the level of intelligence in the bottlenose dolphin is closer to the human range than are our nearest primate relatives (Reiss et al., 1997). So how different is dolphin cognition and psychology from humans? Bottlenose dolphins exhibit a lot of intellectual behavior similar to humans such as…

A common belief among many people is that humans are the smartest creatures on Earth, but is that really the case? Multiple studies have shown that humans are not the only intelligent animals on the planet. Cetaceans are known to be very intelligent animals, especially Bottlenose Dolphins. This cetacean species is often seen living in small groups, also called pods, that hunt and mate together. Within each pod, dolphins communicate with each other through whistles that can be individualized and assigned to different dolphins (Oceana). To summarize, the pod of dolphins can act as one unit. They communicate, mate, and hunt together. Image 1. Displays multiple dolphins in their respective pods. More than one pod is present and they swim with their own pod. Photo taken by Elyse Vick for the Cape May Whale Watch & Research Center.  Along with…