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Dolphins continue to surprise us with their amazing abilities and the way they live together. Yet, research has only discovered a fraction of what dolphins are capable of so far. But what is known is enough for many scientists to grant dolphins the status of “non-human persons”. Because of their close resemblance to humans, dolphins are also referred to as “our spitting image of the sea”.
Dolphins can recognize their reflection
Dolphins know who they are and can therefore recognize themselves in a mirror. This is based on the assumption that self-recognition in the so-called mirror test is a first sign of higher consciousness. For a long time, this self-awareness was only attributed to humans and great apes such as gorillas and chimpanzees. Since 2006, it has been known that elephants also have this awareness. In 2008, the first bird passed the mirror test: Gerti the magpie at the University of Bochum. Sometime later, three out of five magpies at the University of Frankfurt recognized each other.
Marine biologist Diana Reiss and behavioral scientist Lori Marino of Emory University in Atlanta performed the famous mirror test on two bottlenose dolphins at the New York Aquarium, revealing for the first time that dolphins are capable of self-awareness. The scientists installed mirrors in the bottlenose dolphins’ tanks. The animals were then marked with a non-toxic ink stain on their bodies or, as a counter test, their bodies were simply touched as if a mark had been applied.
The complex social behaviour of dolphins as a possible reason
The result: The bottlenose dolphins swam directly toward the mirror each time to get a closer look at the markings. They twisted and turned to examine the painted area. This also allowed them to recognize when they were just touched without being marked. The unmarked dolphins spent significantly less time in front of the mirror than the others. The unmarked dolphins also showed little interest in identifying their peers.
The study shows that “a brain with a completely different structure from that of humans and great apes is capable of doing things that were previously thought only to be possible in humans,” says evolutionary biologist Irene Pepperberg of the University of Arizona.
To those who have studied dolphins closely, however, these research results come as no surprise. “For animals with complex social relationships, it makes a lot of sense to have self-awareness and self-confidence, because they have to make decisions about their social environment all the time,” says Richard Conner of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, who was the first to document so-called super-alliances of more than 14 animals in dolphins. Finally, there is now scientific evidence that dolphins are more similar to humans than many had previously thought.
