Are Dolphins And Whales As Smart As People?

Intelligence, a word that defines the ability to learn and apply to knowledge; to understand new or demanding situations and ability to think abstractly. This ability defines humans what they are today and what they are capable of. But now a question arises is any other species capable to match the intelligence of humans?

Many researchers have been conducted throughout the world on different animal species to study their behavior under different circumstances. These researches gave results that showed that dolphins have the ability to do all the things that defines intelligence and most scientists agree that dolphins are very intelligent. They are talented mimics and learn things quickly; they demonstrate self awareness, problem solving and different emotions like grief, joy and playfulness.

Whales and dolphins have large brains; dolphins have a brain to body ratio second only to humans. The most obvious difference between a human brain and that of a dolphin and a whale is that they have a brain area completely dedicated to echolocation (Seeing the surroundings with the help of Sonar). Whales and dolphins have this superpower because sound can travel in a much better way in water then light. Dolphins can check out each other’s pregnancies. They can even figure out what other dolphins are looking at by listening to their echolocating clicks.

Brain of whale and dolphin contain specialized brain cells called spindle neurons this advances them with abilities like recognizing, remembering, communicating, perceiving, problem-solving and understanding. So it makes out that these creatures are deep thinkers and have a part of brain which processes emotions (limbtic system) which is more complex than a human.

Whales and dolphins are very playful beings and it said that play is a great expression of intelligence. Dolphins can be seen doing back flips, spinning together in groups and leaping. Some dolphins and whales even team up to play games. One such scenario was filmed off the cost of Hawaii where bottlenose dolphins swim onto the nose of humpback whales, which then raise themselves to a great height out of the water, then dolphins slide down their head with great splash and this game goes on.

Experts in this fields figured out that some species of dolphins use signature whistles so that they are individually identifiable i.e. it acts as their name. So when they greet with others they use their names. It was believed that no other creature, besides humans, gave name to each other.

Conclusion:
It will not be wrong if we call these creatures the humans of the sea and oceans. Also if they had had limbs like humans they would have created a new world inside the water. I think it would be beautiful to imagine.