Perhaps what we could do is set up an arena and force them to work together as a team. If we design the experiment with care then we might be able to settle the

Perhaps what we could do is set up an arena and force them to work together as a team. If we design the experiment with care then we might be able to settle the question of imitation vs. communication. For example if we hide food beneath inside a container and put several such containers in a grid then we could see if they co-ordinate the search. We could control for imitation by making the pool pitch black and covering the dolphin's eyes, thus forcing them to use echolocation extensively, which we should be able to capture. If we can track the direction and the nature of the clicks as well as the position and subsequent actions of the dolphins after making them, then we might be able to answer this question.