Are dolphins smart?

Children who have watched dolphin performances know that under the command of the trainer, the dolphins can head the ball and drill in circles with extremely flexible movements. People can't help but admire: Dolphins are so cute! Dolphins are so smart! So, how smart are dolphins?

Scientists first looked at the development of dolphin brain cells from an anatomical point of view, which is the basis of intelligence and thinking. In the 1930s, Dr. Ogawa of Japan began comparative experiments on dolphin brains, human brains and other animal brains. Anatomical studies proved that dolphin brains are very developed, with an average brain weight of about 1,700 grams, which is heavier than the human brain. But its brain weight per unit body length, that is, its relative brain weight, is lower than that of humans, but higher than that of monkeys and chimpanzees. The brain weight of a dolphin is 0.55 kilograms per meter of body length, while that of a chimpanzee is only 0.21 kilograms. This means that dolphins have more brains to control each meter of body than primates such as chimpanzees and monkeys. The ratio of brain weight to body weight is: 21% for humans, 11.7% for dolphins, and 0.7% for chimpanzees. Moreover, the cerebral cortex of dolphins is very developed and covered with sulci. It is much higher than that of macaques and second only to humans.

It can be seen that the high intelligence of dolphins has a material basis. So, just how smart is it?

John Leary believes that it is as smart as humans because they also have their own "language". During more than 20 years of research, he recorded a set of audio tapes recording the sounds of dolphins. This belt sounds like a hodgepodge of various sounds, some like pigs' grunts, some like mice's squeaks, some like dogs' barks, tuts, whistles, and clicks. There are more than 30 clearly identifiable sounds such as squeaks, rattles, grinding sounds, screams, groans, etc.

Li Li believes that this is the "language" of dolphins, but humans cannot currently understand it.

In 1962, in order to find out whether dolphins really have "language", scientists conducted the following experiment: They designed an artificial obstacle in the dolphin experimental tank so that the dolphins could not pass smoothly. There are 5 dolphins in the experimental tank. Scientists discovered that these five dolphins were very strange, so they first sent one to the artificial obstacle for reconnaissance. After the reconnaissance, the dolphin first made a cry to report what it had detected to its companions, and then swam back to its companions and made another whistle-like cry. Then the five dolphins "murmured" together for a while, as if discussing some countermeasures, and finally swam toward the artificial obstacle together, and bypassed the artificial obstacle smoothly and skillfully. This experiment proves that dolphin vocalizations play a certain role in communicating information, similar to "language" communication.

In order to further understand whether dolphins can communicate with each other through "language", scientist Jarvis Bastin designed a complex experiment: Put a male dolphin and a female dolphin in a special container Here, the female dolphin is exposed to both continuous light and flash light. Male dolphins can neither see light nor see female dolphins. The task of the experiment is as follows: when the female dolphin is exposed to continuous light, she must press her right fin and make a cry to "tell" the male dolphin to press its right fin as well. If there is a flash, the female dolphin must press her left fin tightly and make another cry to "tell" the male dolphin to press its left fin also. Only when the dolphins complete this response correctly are they rewarded with fish. The key to this experiment is that the male dolphin can neither see light nor the female dolphin, and its response can only be achieved through the "language" emitted by the female dolphin. The dolphins responded correctly every time.

Dr. Barn of the University of California, USA, also conducted a similar experiment. He separated a female dolphin and a male dolphin at a certain distance so that they could only hear but not see each other, and then trained the female dolphin to "tell" the male dolphin to push one of the two buoys to do the right thing. to get food. The results of the experiment also confirmed that male dolphins can push designated buoys according to the "words" of female dolphins. Bastin's and Barn's experiments both proved that dolphins can use "language" to communicate information and connect thoughts.

Experiments have proven that dolphins can understand "simple language emitted by computers."

Female dolphins taught in mute language can also learn these short languages.

The experiment also proved that the intelligence of dolphins is astonishing in the animal kingdom. But how great is its potential for understanding human language. Just how smart is it. There is still no clear answer.

The biggest problem now is that humans cannot understand the "language" of dolphins. Dolphins' language sound waves are in the ultrasonic wave band, while human language sound waves are in the audible sound wave band.

If dolphins can understand more of human "language" through training, then humans can use computers as "translators" to convert human command language into the ultrasonic language emitted by the computer to command. Dolphins serve humans better. In this way, humans can use dolphins to understand the two-thirds of the unexplored areas on the earth-the deep sea world.