Our Friends The Dolphins I often wonder if we humans really are on top of the earthly heap. Could the animal kingdom have a type of animal or two which are far smarter than we give them credit for, but because they are not physically equipped for things like tool making, their evolution has been limited. I am thinking about dolphins in particular. It turns out dolphins have been tested and have come out second only to humans in intelligence and who knows maybe because of the way they were tested their true scale of intelligence was not reached. Dolphins have a connection to us. I have to wonder how many times dolphins have rescued drowning humans or humans being attacked by sharks. Maybe they even have undiscovered powers we have not found yet. Their brain is roughly ¼ bigger than a human brain so who knows what they might be able to do with it such as even read our thoughts. There have been very few attacks on humans by dolphins, but they are very rare. This makes me wonder if there could be mentally ill dolphins, or even dolphins who have other sicknesses, or even have tooth pain. The average size of a dolphin is said to be 8.5 feet in captivity and 8.9 feet in the wild. There are different species of dolphins. It is said there are over 40 species. There is one population of dolphin which is the rarest, it is the New Zealand Maui, and there are only about 54 of them. It is said this type are getting younger which means the older ones are dying out. One of the things about dolphins which links them to us is the fact they are very much like us in different ways. They are said to have social skills, and are very intelligent. Each dolphin has its own personality much as we do. Porpoises are dolphins and the main difference between them is their size. Usually, dolphins are larger than porpoises and have a different shaped head. A dolphin has a bulbous head and a protruding beak, but the porpoise has a blunt head and spade-shaped teeth, while dolphin’s teeth are conical. There are seven different types of porpoises. Notice some of the animals have the title whale. Whales, dolphins and porpoises belong to the family Cetacea. Dolphins are part of the family of whales. In the family Cetacea are two subspecies. One is baleen whales the other is tooth whales. If we want to see where dolphins fall, they are in the category toothed whales which includes dolphins and Orcas also known as Killer Whales. An Orca is said to be the largest dolphin growing to about 32 feet. Talking about Orcas, Sea World had a big problem with one of their Orcas and its trainer. People used to flock to there and one of the reasons was to watch the Orca perform, but one day things didn’t go as planned. Sea World has the most captive Orcas in the world and they are kept in the water of a 26 million liter tank which is miniscule compared to their natural habitat. This brings on aggression. In the middle of a show the Orcas stopped following instructions and charged at each other. Two Orcas got into a fight. Female Orcas dominate the Orca society. One of the females at the show refused to cooperate. At another time a trainer was bit by an Orca and rushed to the hospital but survived. Many people are against these types of shows and think it is not right to confine intelligent Orcas in such a restricted area. This may sound crazy, but it is true. There was a lost swimmer off the coast of Ireland. The swimmer was missing for 12 hours and could not be found. Rescuers found a group of dolphins swimming in a circle around the man who was exhausted. Did the animals realize what they were doing by making it easier to spot the swimmer? I have to believe they did. In another event a dolphin saw a diver and swam to him, the diver noticed a big fish hook sticking out of a fin which was not moving and removed it. The dolphin stayed still and let him do it. It seemed the dolphin went to the diver for help. There was a case where a man was swimming in the Red Sea. Everything seemed to be fine for a while, then the horrible happened. The poor guy met up with a shark which attacked him. This was seen by a few dolphins which rushed to his defense killing the shark. Was it the fact dolphins like people or the fact they hate sharks which drove them to do this. Most believe they actually like humans and many times will come to their rescue. There is a case where a dolphin was swimming and came to a wharf. On that wharf was a dog. The dog wagged its tail and made nice to the dolphin. The next day the dolphin came back to visit the dog and they became fast friends with the dog going to the wharf everyday and the dolphin showing up. They clearly had formed a bond. Dolphins seem to have feelings much as we do. They can like certain people and animals just as we can. They also seem to be able to understand things. Take the dolphin with the fish hook in him. He seemed to know if he went to the diver there was a good chance the diver would help it. You wouldn’t see many other creatures going to humans for help. It actually realized the human might be able to fix its problem. The only other ocean creature I remember forming a bond like this with a human was an octopus which formed a bond with a diver and would come out to meet him when he went into the water.
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