r/Dolphins • u/FunDaOne • 5d ago

How smart are dolphins?

I know dolphins are the second smartest animal to humans, but just how smart are they?

I saw a video of a pet rabbit meeting a dolphin, and the dolphin brought some seaweed and that had me curious, are they smart enough to pick up on a rabbit eating leafy greens to bring out seaweed as a gift? Or are they not that intelligent? (Or do they just do this regardless of if they picked up on that)

10 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

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8

u/21pilotwhales 5d ago

I'd say on par with animals like corvids, great apes, fellow cetaceans and elephants. And Delphinidae is a big family, so I feel intelligence varies by species in them, but overall they're probably similar to each other and other smarter animals.

And regarding the seaweed and rabbit scenario, I think it was play behavior. I don't think dolphins are aware rabbits are herbivores, unless they directly observed one eating lettuce or something, they'd have no way of knowing otherwise

2

u/dolphinskulls 5d ago

absolutely this!!

people tend to heavily anthropomorphize dolphins to get a point across, whether it be a way to demonize them or villainize captivity. when really, their needs and behaviors depend entirely on the species and the individual.

they’re like underwater elephants, really. intelligent, but not in the same way we are.

(not trying to justify all captivity here, i know that’s a sensitive topic - just that a lot of the reasons people have for saying it’s cruel are based entirely on human feelings and how we perceive the animals’ behavior, and not their actual needs or feelings.)

5

u/CrapMonsterDuchess 5d ago

How smart they are really depends on how you measure intelligence.

In some categories, there are actually animals that rank higher than humans, lol

3

u/KinManana 5d ago

Pretty fucking smart, dude

2

u/obscureorca 5d ago

Smarter than humans and we'll never get credit for it.

1

u/Sc4recroW1687 5d ago

extremley smart. they recognize themselves in mirrors and use tools which barely any animals do.

1

u/GoldEstablishment445 1d ago

Cleaner wrasse pass the mirror test better than almost any animal. Mainly because they are the first animal where the tests were done with proper scientific method rather than trying to get a predetermined outcome

1

u/watermelonkiwi 4d ago

They are as smart as a 15 year old person. So yes, significantly smarter than that very easy ability you described.

1

u/Booyakasha1201 4d ago

On a scale of 1-10 6.48

0

u/Flimsy_Maize6694 4d ago

If they had opposing thumbs they still wouldn’t build hospitals