Smart Dolphins: Stories of Dolphins Showing Off Their Superior Intelligence

March is an exciting month for lots of reasons, but one is that it's Dolphin Awareness Month! Dolphins belong to the cetacean order, which includes whales, porpoises, and orcas. This category of sea mammals are extremely smart, and even have brains that aren't too different from human brains! They are social animals and know how to work together with both other dolphins and humans. Dolphins are absolutely fascinating and for that reason lots of research has been done on them, and continues to be done.

For our Dolphin Awareness Month, we're bringing you stories and facts about exactly how smart dolphins are. First we tell you the story of an amazing dolphin named Kelly, who's led an adventurous life and is one of the smartest and most cunning animals her trainers have ever work with. Then you'll learn about some of the very cool skills and behaviors that researchers have found, which make dolphins seem similar to humans and in some cases even smarter than humans.

Posted by armchaircomedian

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Kelly's story

We'll start by showing how smart and amazing dolphins are by telling the story of Kelly, one of the most well-known, talented, and intelligent dolphins in America. She's a 44-year-old bottle-nosed dolphin living in Dolphin Cay in the Bahamas. She's had a big life, going from Florida to Oklahoma to being rescued from Hurricane Katrina and eventually to Dolphin Cay, and even at her advanced age she's still sharp as a tack and a great performer.

Via Hakai Magazine
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Kelly's Story

When it came to learning tricks, Kelly was always one of the first dolphins to "get it". She could leap up many feet up in the air and do flips like it was nothing. But that's not what makes Kelly so impressive--she actually figured out ways to game the training rewards system and "train" her trainers to give her more fish…

Via Hakai Magazine
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Kelly's story

Unfortunately, dolphin enclosures sometimes get litter and trash blown into them from the area. So the dolphins are trained to bring litter that they find to the trainers in return for fish. Kelly figured out that if no trainers were around, she could stash her trash and bring it to the trainers later. Not only did she show she understood delayed gratification, she actually hoarded trash that she found to bring up whenever she saw a trainer--and showed she understood that she was "cheating" and should hide the stash.

Via Hakai Magazine
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Kelly's story

Once, Kelly caught a seagull and received lots of fish for it. So, wanting to maximize her rewards, Kelly started saving her last fish to lure in more gulls--giving herself an endlessly renewable source of fish. Not only that, but she taught her calf to do it too--and the calves taught other calves! Soon, all the dolphins were were playing catch-the-gull. But soon, Kelly's cunning and bravery would be put to the ultimate test.

Via Hakai Magazine
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Kelly's story

When Hurricane Katrina hit, Kelly's dolphin enclosure was damaged beyond repair and all the dolphins were carried off by the flood. Rescuers were unable to search for them for almost two weeks, but when they did, they found all eight dolphins had stuck together and were just fine, and had stayed close to home! How did that happen? The trainers think Kelly and her co-pod-leader had kept all the dolphins in line and kept a lookout for sharks. Thanks to Kelly's leadership, the dolphins gave hope for repair and the possibility to bounce back in a dark time!

Via Hakai Magazine
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Dolphins form valuable friendships, and have emotional reactions to hearing the calls of dolphins they've met, even those they haven't seen for decades.

Via Jervis Bay Wild
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Dolphin babies can identify themselves in a mirror at just seven months old--human babies take 18 months!

Read more: Whale Scientists

Via Videos in Levels
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Dolphins use unique whistles to call to each other--basically, dolphins have names!

Via Whale Scientists
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In several fishing villages, dolphins and humans have learned to help each other fish. In Laguna, Brazil, this symbiosis is 120 years old.

Via History Daily
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Some dolphins chase fish into trapping themselves in shells, then tip the shells so the fish slides into their mouths. The behavior can be learned from peers!

Via Wired
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Dolphins have complex, multi-leveled social structures--the most complex of any animal that researchers know besides humans.

Via Reader's Digest
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Dolphins can work together in teams or pairs to complete a task or fish more effectively.

Via Treehugger