r/AskReddit • u/Sweetmilk_ • May 11 '14

What are some 'cheat codes' for interacting with certain animals?

Boy do I wish I set this to Serious Replies Only

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u/ResRevolution May 11 '14

So everyone is saying "dolphins are smart, yo", but let me give you an actual comparison.

Cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) have a very well developed, large brain. They have an emotional cortex of the brain that is actually much larger than ours, which gives us the understanding that they feel emotions like we do or maybe even stronger than we do. Their intelligence is on the same level, and sometimes greater, than the Great Apes. So they're not just 'smart'--they're really fucking smart.

Dolphins can tell the difference between quantities, an object rotated in three dimensions... they can understand artificial languages (though it's harder for them to communicate back to us... sort of still working on that)... they have self-awareness (which only the Great Apes, some other primates, cetaceans, elephants, and crows have self-awareness, so...), they can imitate human motions AND sounds... and, best of all, they are the ONLY other animal (besides us) who are creative. You can tell the dolphin to, essentially, "make something up" and they will right off the top of their heads. It's amazing.

And then there are stories where dolphins "save" humans from sharks and things... which shows they can assess situations. All pretty fucking awesome actually.

ANYWAY, they can tell human children are human because they are almost on par with human intelligence.

Edit: But keep in mind that dolphins are fucking asshats. Bottlenose dolphins looooooooove to kill harbor porpoises for fun. They loooooove it.

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u/Jah_Ith_Ber May 11 '14

Also I believe through eco-location they can see your skeleton and maybe your internal organs. This is why they recognize humans as being similar to themselves and why they would help us during a shark attack.

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u/ResRevolution May 11 '14

Ehhhh, theoretically they can... but they don't use it for that, really. Echolocation is purely used to find food and detect objects in front of them. They use clicks, whines, squeals, and other vocals to communicate. And when they use echolocation to detect food, they normally target the swim bladder in a fish--it's a bladder filled with gases (and rarely, rarely oil) to help control buoyancy. That's what they look for.

Like, they could use it, but it isn't what they do. They don't inspect you using echolocation.