8 ms·
Dolphins often seem to want to befriend us
- ossreality 11y ago"befriend us"... among other things :/
- mladenkovacevic 11y agoPoor misguided creatures.
- 7Figures2Commas 11y agoYeah, it's a shame the dolphins seem to be so attracted to them.
- bitmapbrother 11y agoThat's what you call being flippered.
- c3534l 11y agoI skimmed this. Does the author actually make any point or come to a conclusion other than offering anecdotes about how dolphins seem pretty friendly to people? Edit: sorry, I didn't mean to sound too critical.
- hueving 11y agoNo, just some nice anecdotes with no explanation.
- ghshephard 11y agoNo. No points or conclusions are made. Just a meditation on dolphins and humans.
- increment_i 11y agoI felt the same but was wondering if I was being harsh. It seemed to take forever for the piece to say anything of interest.
- dang 11y agoThere's nothing wrong with anecdotes and observations. If they're interesting, that's more than enough for good HN conversation.
- puranjay 11y agoIt's almost as if HN folks need some hard data even in their light reading. So does it matter whether dolphins actually seek us out? I just get a kick out of thinking they do, and this article put a smile on my face.
- AdieuToLogic 11y agoApologies for being fully off topic and not related to this submission/thread... @dang Much respect for your moderation and even keeled interactions. I can learn a lot by it. (this won't be a recurring theme or anything, just giving you props and fading back into the crowd)
- hristov 11y agoEven if she doesn't this is still a very interesting read. Many of her anecdotes have been seen and confirmed by so many different people that they are undoubtedly true. And considering these are true, they are very unusual and interesting to hear. I am not aware of any other wild animal that behaves like this. Both in terms of friendliness, and in terms of intelligence as in knowing what people like and how and when to help us. Obviously you cannot include domesticated animals, such as dogs or cows in this. These animals have been domesticated for so long, they must certainly have obtained some human friendly genes through natural selection. Even a "wild" dog carries genes that are the result of thousands of years of domestication. But a dolphin has no natural selection reason to be friendly to humans. And given how cruel nature is, and how cruel humans often are, it is rather amazing, they display such inter species friendliness.
- glaberficken 11y ago"These animals have been domesticated for so long, they must certainly have obtained some human friendly genes through natural selection" Domesticated species evolve by artificial selection/selective breeding not by natural selection.
- gearhart 11y agoIt's an interesting idea - natural selection not by death before breeding, but by emigration - if only the animals that liked humans stayed near them, and those that didn't went elsewhere, then they'd end up breeding with other "friendly" individuals and you'd have genetic selection pressure that would amount to natural selection. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Domesticated_Red_Fox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Domesticated_Red_Fox (evidence for genetic influence on "friendliness") Edit: somewhat irrelevant to the point above, but interesting anyway
- hydrogen18 11y agoNo, the author doesn't. On the other hand, you can quickly arrive at most of the same conclusion if you've spent extended time with dolphins. I always chuckle when I'm told the Marine Mammal Protection act prohibits pursuit of dolphins. It is usually me who is being pursued. During one fishing trip we had 3 dolphins simply show up and start following us. When we would move fishing spots, even 20 miles or more away, they'd still catch up to us. Their cruise speed isn't very high, it is probably around 12 mph. Once at the fishing spot they'd dive and start scaring the fish. Many fish will bite defensively, so this is great when you are fishing with a hook and line. Any fish we couldn't legally keep we'd throw back, which the dolphins would immediately consume. They'd be right beside the boat looking at us as we removed the hook from the mouth of the fish. Dolphins are pretty obviously intelligent enough to understand what is going on in the sea. Non-mammals in the sea react to a very basic set of cues to take action. A shark can easily be confused with a quick clap on the water surface. I've also watched sharks eat metallic items, which is flat out stupid. I'm willing to bet an octopus has some significant intelligence behind it, mostly because I've never seen one get caught on a hook. This means they are smart enough to avoid them. I've never dealt with aggression from dolphins. That said, dolphins aren't going to pull up a chair and debate the merits of presidential candidates. When someone speaks of a dolphin "mourning" for another dead dolphin, I think we are just inserting what we expect a dolphin to feel. The dolphin could just as easily be confused by another dead dolphin. I've also seen what I can only call a dolphin "party". I came upon a huge group of dolphins, at least 60 or more. There were many species present. I was convinced there was a huge school of fish nearby they were feeding on. Nope, the dolphins were just hanging out. As we stopped the boat they just started jumping over the bow as if to say "Thanks for joining us".
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- hueving 11y agoThe following is something often repeated that doesn't make sense to me: >Of course we'll find them among us: they have nowhere else to go. The ocean makes up a majority of this planet and a tiny fraction of it is within 20 miles of any land where most of the human activity is. Other than major shipping routes, they have the rest to go without encountering people. I don't know where the impression comes from that we are crowding them out.
- InclinedPlane 11y agoHumans have been hunting in the ocean for centuries, today we dominate it to a degree that we're affecting world fisheries to an enormous extent. Dolphins are going to be where the fish are, they have to be in order to live, humans are going to be there too.
- themartorana 11y agoI imagine some of it has to do with availability of adequate food, ocean temperatures (and how that affects both of the other points), mating "grounds", and so on?
- dangrossman 11y agoCoastal dolphins, which are genetically distinct from offshore dolphins, have evolved to live in coastal waters. Their bodies are not adapted to cold waters or deep diving. They really don't have "the rest" of the ocean to live in.
- jussij 11y agoJust like on land, not all parts of the ocean are equal. There are regions teaming with life, but there are also regions that are barren and life less, just like the deserts found on land. It all comes down to winds and currents as to which is which. Now the problem is, humans, like the dolphins don't want those desert parts of the ocean.
- codezero 11y agofor context, look at the range of one of their food sources, the sardine: http://www.chefs-resources.com/files/Sardines-Sprat-Pilchards-Brisling/Sardine-range.jpg http://www.chefs-resources.com/files/Sardines-Sprat-Pilchard... This greatly restricts their over-all range. To contrast dolphins, there are huge swaths of the land mass of the world with almost no human population, and we seem to gather in certain spots for certain reasons, most life does this, so it's not just a matter of the total volume of the ocean vs the entire population of dolphins.
- superskierpat 11y agoAt least theyre thankful for all the fish
- Animats 11y agoWell, humans are interesting to dolphins. Dolphins are reasonably intelligent and none of the other marine life can communicate or play with them.
- jjtheblunt 11y agoHow would one know that? Pinnipeds seem very smart too, for example.
- sea2summit 11y agoPinnipeds are smart like dogs. Dolphins are smart like primates.
- stinos 11y agoDo you have a source for this? Also, what primates exactly do you mean? There are huge differences of smart within the primate category, e.g. monkeys vs humans.
- vlehto 11y agoHumans actually. "The brain to body mass ratio in some members of the odontocete superfamily Delphinoidea is second only to modern humans, and greater than all other mammals" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetacean_intelligence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cetacean_intelligence
- pygy_ 11y agoBut their neuronal density is much lower. IIRC their high glia/neuron ratio is though to be an adaptation to sea life.
- Natanael_L 11y agoNeuron interconnectivity might be more important than plain neuron count. So that could be an advantage.
- rwhitman 11y agoIf dolphins were land mammals, would we be as fascinated by this type of cross-species social behavior? Dolphins are certainly interesting, but if I were to worry myself with the plight of a hyper-intelligent mammal species right now, I'd put that energy towards concern for elephants instead. They are an intelligent species that is actually smarter than humans in some aspects and being systematically slaughtered by poachers every day. Dolphin propeller strikes are sad, but potential elephant extinction is a crisis
- cLeEOGPw 11y agoIn what aspects elephants are smarter than people?
- mattm 11y agoThey have genetic memory for one. An elephant can "remember" a water source that its grandparents once visit well before it was born.
- lttlrck 11y agoThat's certainly an impressive attribute but is it smarter?
- nickthemagicman 11y agoBut does it blend?
- tomp 11y agoWas this tested in a way to eliminate any possibility of communication of the location (through generations) post-natally?
- cLeEOGPw 11y agoLink to source? As far as I know for animals only immune system related genetic memory is possible and your example seems to be extremely prone to misinterpretation. Either way, this doesn't say anything about elephants' intelligence.
- junto 11y agoMy first real interaction with dolphins was sailing around the UK on a tall ship (STS Malcolm Miller) about 25 years ago. As we sailed around Land's End, a pod of dolphins started playing around the boat. I want on watch, so I lay face down in the net below the bowsprit and watched them play for over an hour. They were like surfers lining up at a breach break. There were rules. Each took their turn to ride the waves coming off the front of the ship. They were having fun. They had the time to just enjoy themselves. You could imagine one saying to the other, "gnarly dude. That drop in was sweet! You owned that wave". At that point I saw the similarity between humans and dolphins. They are at the top of their food chain and food is plentiful. They don't have to spend the entire day hunting and eating like so many other animals. So this gives them time. Time to learn, time to play and time to socialise. Awesome animals.
- LightMachine 11y agoAre dolphins on the top of the food chain? I thought they were predated by whales and sharks?
- JoeAltmaier 11y ago...and Japanese dog food companies.
- junto 11y agoTrue, but but the great white shark is also hunted by killer whales, but I think you would probably consider the great white shark to be at the to of the food chain. Humans don't fair too well against a number of large predators either all things being equal. Let's rephrase it to be "pretty much the pinnacle of the food chain".
- JoeAltmaier 11y agoAsimov wrote an article about that myth - that humans were some poor vulnerable mammal through history, using its wits to survive against apex predators. Turns out, through history, humans were apex predators. We don't live in the ocean; sharks and whales are not preying upon us. In other ecosystems, humans rarely if ever met other apex predators. We were the top of the heap historically in almost every environment we occupied. Pretty much. That said, I remember reading recently about 6 or 8 human skeletons being found in a saber-toothed tiger den, 80,000 years old, being excavated somewhere.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- peze 11y agoIt's a trap
- peze 11y agoIt's a trap
- apryldelancey 11y agoI've spent most of my life in the ocean as a scuba diver/surfer and have encountered dolphins many times. They're just like humans in terms of personality. Some are cool, some are jerks. For example, I was surfing alone on the north side of a jetty and there was a pod that was swimming close by. One of them started slapping it's tail at the surface. This is a sign of aggression so I got out of the water and moved to another spot. Another time I was surfing about 200 yards north of a pier with one other person. We were circled by a dolphin that seemed quite playful that suddenly bumped the back of my board and then jumped out of the water over me. I've had another jump over me when I was paddling toward the wave and it was riding through it as they have been observed doing many times. If there is a juvenile with a pod I definitely keep my distance. Mama dolphin does not want to be friends with any human that comes near her baby. Quite the contrary, they will get very aggressive to protect their young. Additionally, I have seen my share of sharks and pinnipeds. Just last week a pinniped surfaced next to me and then came at me and grabbed my surfboard leash. Of course, I let out a little shriek since I wasn't expecting it but it quickly let go. I've had them follow me more than once. They've swam alongside me as I was paddling out and have surfaced right in front of me. I've had juvenile white sharks (4-5 feet) swim by curiously as well. Many of these encounters can be taken as the animal wanting "to be my friend". By the way, orcas are actually more a dolphin than a whale as they are in the Delphinidae family.
- wsc981 11y agoThe story of the Killer Whales of Eden, Australia was interesting. These killer whales hunted their prey with the humans, shared the loot and the killer whales even protected a human if they fell into the water. http://www.killersofeden.com http://www.killersofeden.com
- apryldelancey 11y agoCool, thanks for the link.
- walterbell 11y agoThere's an old documentary called For the Love of Dolphins, with stories about attempts at human-dolphin communication, https://youtube.com/watch?v=UDAmktAAcno https://youtube.com/watch?v=UDAmktAAcno
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- dcaranda 11y agoThe Dolphin Embassy was a project by Berkeley art collective Ant Farm. It's mission was to develop dolphin/human relations through the creation of a common language and a mobile laboratory. The project received funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and was shown at SFMOMA. Ant Farm is considered significant as the first studio practice to incorporate new media in its work. Thematically it looks like they were focused on the confluence of new technology, utopian optimism and psychedelic drugs. Iterations of the designs for the Dolphin Embassy continued into the early 2000s with a proposal for a space craft that would act as a joint dolphin-human space colony and would contain a massive, free floating sphere of water that would be ultra sonically stabilized. So cool! One of my favorite art pieces! http://greg.org/archive/2010/06/01/cue_the_dolphin_embassy.html http://greg.org/archive/2010/06/01/cue_the_dolphin_embassy.h...