Are Dolphins Really “Flippin’ Idiots?”

In yesterday’s New York Times, psychology professor and author Frans de Waal corrects South African scientist, Paul Manger, who has called dolphins ‘flippin’ idiots’ (among other things) in Looking at Flipper, Seeing Ourselves (10/09/06).

Manger claimed that dolphins are dimwits, a conclusion he evidently based on the fact that they have large brains full way more fatty glial cells than neurons, and they don’t jump out of tuna nets. De Waal finds Manger misinformed, noting fascinating bits of trivia such as:

• Ahem, uh, we also have more glial cells than neurons.
• "Presley, a dolphin at the New York Aquarium . . . without any rewards, reacted to being marked with paint by taking off at high speed to a distant part of his tank where a mirror was mounted. There he spun round and round, the way we do in a dressing room, appearing to check himself out."
• Each dolphin has  a unique whistle that others recognize him or her by.
• Dolphins have lifelong bonds, and pet each other to make up after fights.
• Males form power-seeking coalitions. (I hope that’s working out better for them than it is for us. I’m not sure if that’s a sign of intelligence.)
• They help each other when they are ill.
• They have really neat hunting strategies that require team work.
• In captivity, they imitate the gait and gestures of people.
• They can outsmart their captors (he calls them "keepers"). De Waal writes, "One female dolphin that was rewarded with a fish for every piece of debris she managed to collect from her tank managed to con her trainers into a bounty of snacks. They discovered she had been hiding large items like newspapers underwater, only to rip small pieces from them, bringing these to her trainer one by one."

De Waal asks, "What is so upsetting to some people about the closeness between animal and human intelligence, or between animal and human emotions, for that matter?"

It’s very simple: The more similarities we accept between us and nonhuman animals, the less we are able to justify treating them like . . . animals.