How Smart are Dolphins?

Some people believe dolphins to be second in intelligence only to humans and lots of researchers try to discover just how smart dolphins really are. Obviously as they can’t answer us it’s hard to do tests but we do have some indications. If brain size means anything then dolphins must be very smart as they have huge brains – second only to humans proportionally. Also because dolphins don’t need to use up their brain dealing with gravity and balance as they’re in water more of their brain is free for other tasks.

Apart from all the smart tricks dolphins can do they’ve also shown that they can think. One test which was deliberately made too difficult gave the dolphins the chance to choose an easier test. Amazingly they did showing that they can actually think about their own thinking! Dolphins can also recognize themselves in the mirror an ability that they share only with apes and humans. Sounds pretty smart right? Indeed dolphins are very special creatures.

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