By Carol Van Strum
In what seems to be a step forward in scientific thought, behavioral, linguistic, and zoological studies suggest that the exceptional intelligence, brain structure, and complex individual and social behavior of bottlenose and other dolphin species qualify them to be treated as non-human persons and granted rights as individuals.
“The behavioral studies showed dolphins (especially the bottlenose) have distinct personalities and self-awareness, and they can think about the future. The research also confirmed dolphins have complex social structures, with individuals co-operating to solve difficult problems or to round up shoals of fish to eat, and with new behaviors being passed from one dolphin to another.”
Professor of psychology at City University of New York, Diana Reiss, who has shown dolphins capable of learning symbolic language, will present her findings at a conference in San Diego, California next month, along with zoologist Lori Marino from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. “Reiss and Marino say their behavioral and anatomical findings and our new understanding of dolphin intelligence mean it may not be ethical to keep dolphins in aquatic amusement parks for our entertainment, or to kill them for food.”
The very idea triggers blasts of horror from ego-centric humans (see the comments after the physorg article in the link), but actually it is not new. As far back as 1936, Karl Ĉapek premised his novel, War With the Newts, on the questions, “If some species other than man were to attain that level we call civilization, what do you think – would it do the same stupid things mankind has done? ….What would we say if some animal other than man declared that its education and its numbers gave it the sole right to occupy the entire world and hold sway over all creation?”
Leo Szilard, inventor of nuclear fission leading to development of the atomic bomb, regretted and attempted to stop his creation for the rest of his life. In his book The Voice of the Dolphin (published 1947) he created a fictional Vienna Institute as a vehicle to allow dolphins to save us from our most insane follies. In the institute, Russian and American scientists collaborate on a project to establish communication with dolphins, tapping their superior intelligence to resolve international conflicts and global crises.
Through scientific observation, fiction, myth and even popular culture, the dolphin’s intelligence is a widely-observed phenomenon. But today’s recommendation by Marino and Reiss takes a brave new step forward. Perhaps humility is in order as we recognize a peer in intelligence from another species on this planet. It certainly does give one pause on how much larger-hearted and -minded we need to be. It’s time, perhaps, to re-examine our self-concept of dominant species on this orb, and even our self-definition of intelligence. We need to get ready to make room for those who could be smarter students in the classroom called earth.
Fe writes:
“ginblossom — You’re knockin’ me out, babe.”
Me too!
I’ve just found out I’m having gall bladder issues and it totally makes sense of my emotional health of late. Waaaay too much bile and anger coursing through my system — the “gall” of it 😉
So I really must increase my focus and commitment to eating much healthier or else. Thing is these health issues are genetic so rather than see it as a solitary endeavor I’m attempting to reach out and enlist my ancestors for enlightenment and guidance. It’s those inherited emotional patterns that sway my unhealthy decisions that have to be addressed at the core of me and compared to so many of you others out there, I’m definitely a neophyte.
ginblossom:
You’re knockin’ me out, babe.
By the way, so is some nineteen year old kid with tnt in his drawers.
Ginblossom: D’accord.
M
ginblossom says: ‘Good god, there’s going to be a movie about a test tube cow who realizes she has the gift of speech and uses her Fame to set the Mycoproteins free.’
Here’s an appropriate YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IJBbtkBMMs
ginblossom DOES say it all. . . .thank you so much gb!
Has anybody seen or heard any discussion regarding the eclipse Friday and how it affects the U.S., in that it is conjunct the Sibley Pluto in the 2nd house?
If so, what have you heard?
be
Thank you for an excellent post and subsequent comments.
Ginblossum said it all.
I have celiac and found I do much better on an almost paleo diet. We hunt and process our own meat in my family; the venison is very healthy and I know where it comes from, but I still feel weird about it. My husband the biologist also says things like, “Dolphins eat a lot of squid.”
I was marine biology major in college until I learned I’d have to dissect dolphins. I just wanted to learn how to talk with them. I just forced myself to order “The Cove” after seeing the trailer.
I wish I could be a vegetarian. The thing is carbs make me wicked fat. I tried once for a whole year to eat nothing but almonds and TVP and green veggies but that was so estrogenic I ended up sort of bats, basically cyclically massively bipolar not to mention anemic, sucking down dropperfuls of bitter grassy tinctures to combat the Crazy.
So now I only eat organic, I eat with intention ( except for the chocolate cake and cabernet) and I am so damn sorry jere because I can’t even imagine killing a single chicken even one time, on a farm, in the fresh air, with a candelabra or a noose or a even a handgun. I could not do it personally. I pay someone else to do it, out the nose for “cruelty free”; and I admit I am an evil, cowardly blind murderous train wreck of meat karma.
Now come to find out there is legislation to support the murder industry actually cloning innocent beasts for our nutrition. That, really, might put me entirely off my feed for the rest of my life. It’s just horrifying. I hear something like that and I just don’t even know what to do, my Virgo is already suicidal with guilt.
Of course dolphins are people.
By the way, so are Iraqis.
By the way, so is some nineteen year old kid with tnt in his drawers.
One day you are going to find me and my Virgo in a hole in the ground in Tennessee, eating wild tobacco and mineral rich mountain runoff, gibbering in mad prayer for the souls of Monsanto Brand Skirt Steaks.
I’m not entirely kidding.
Good god, there’s going to be a movie about a test tube cow who realizes she has the gift of speech and uses her Fame to set the Mycoproteins free.
Amazing movie to check out is ‘The Cove’:
http://www.thecovemovie.com/
It was just released on DVD.
I trained with the 2 freedivers who help to set up the technology to film a dolphin slaughter in Japan. Intense movie, and well worth watching.
Jere, dolphins eat a lot of squid.
We muddle along. My daughter’s ambition was to become an animal rights lawyer, she hoped to argue in the Hague for full civil rights for cetaceans (not just dolphins, they’re just the easiest to access).
I played cello for a pod of beaching pilot whales the year before she was born. Always had a sense the events were connected.
Yes, I remember the article, still foul. (Come on man,.. you killin’ your feast? Guttin’ it? Skinnin’ the little [or big] guy?) You know you aren’t, so wtf! You should probably go out a-killin’, make it real, Experience the Beast and the bleeding gasps it has to offer. I double dog dare your ass to go kill something, tear it up, take it home and eat it. Hell, I just want to see if you have the balls to practice this insanity called murder, if so…
Plants are people too.
http://www.planetwaves.net/contents/chewing_rhind.html
..Just sayin’,.. if the recipe calls for “removing” the head.. think at least twice. And then enjoy the roughage!
Better Loves!
Jere
Very cool post. I won’t (exactly) go into my Vegan sway here.. but there is food for thought (pun). All intelligence is derived from the same source. (Even if you take it back to pre-celled organisms, fractals even, life is a funky stew.) So, are we cookin’ with dolphin?.. Or maybe (and this was always weird, in Babuska’s soups) eyeballs, hearts, livers, brain…
It’s totally unfun to ask this but, if you’re into flesh, please, kill the animal yourself. Cut the guts out, chop it up, and commune with the body you choose to devour. In all respect it can be done.. but, there are other kingdoms to pull from, with far more diversity than the one that we are kin to.
Love,
J