Hallo, gentle viewers,
and welcome to
Animal World:
Our Co-Inhabitants.
One of the world’s most
widely loved animals
of the sea is the dolphin.
On today's program
we’ll visit with
Dr. Lori Marino,
an expert on cetacean
intellect and a senior
lecturer in neuroscience
and behavioral biology
as well as an adjunct
instructor in psychology
at Emory University in
Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
A good portion of
her dolphin research
involves studying
the brains of wild dolphins
who have died
of natural causes.
For the past 15 years,
I’ve been studying the
intelligence of dolphins,
and I’ve been
mainly doing that by
looking at their brains.
I do something called
Magnetic Resonance
Imaging.
And what that means is
I look at that structure
of their brain, I look at
the size of their brain.
I look at how their brain
is put together, and then
try to infer something
about their behavior and
their intelligence and
their abilities from that.
In 2001, Dr. Marino and
her colleague were the
first to publish research
regarding the ability
of Bottlenose dolphins to
recognize themselves
in a mirror,
an ability scientists say
demonstrates
self-awareness.
Before Dr. Marino’s
discovery,
self-recognition was
thought to be
a characteristic unique to
humans and the great apes.
A few years ago,
I set out to do a study,
to look at the relative
brain size of dolphins
and whales and humans
and other primates, and
the relative brain size
is really the size of
one’s brain relative to
the body size.
And the bigger
your brain is compared
to your body, the more
processing power
you might have.
So when you look at
humans, modern humans,
our brains are very large
for our body size.
And we look at
our closest relatives,
the great apes, you find
that their brains are
very large as well.
But there is another group,
and that’s dolphins and
whales that have a much
larger relative brain size
than all other animals,
including the great apes,
and they are
really second only
to modern humans.
I use medical imaging
techniques to study
the size and the structure
of the brains.
It gives me
a three-dimensional view
of the inside of the brain.
And that allows me
to measure the brain,
that allows me to look at
all the components of
the brain and it gives me
a great deal of flexibility
in terms of the kinds
of analyses I can do.
Can you explain to me
a little bit more about the
encephalization process
and how that works
in your study?
Yes. Encephalization is
a word that means
the growth of the brain
over evolutionary time.
(Okay)
And so if an animal is
really highly encephalized,
that means over time
their brain has gotten
very large.
So humans,
modern humans, are
the most encephalized
organisms
on the planet right now.
So if you do the same sort
of calculation for other
species, what you find is
many of the modern
dolphins and whales are
more encephalized
than any other animals
on the planet, except
modern humans.
In fact I did an analysis
a few years ago
looking at modern
dolphins and whales
and how encephalized
they are compared with
our recent hominid
ancestors, and found that
up until about
a million years ago
the most encephalized
animals on the planet
were not hominids,
they were dolphins.
We know that about
35-million years ago,
there was
a significant shift in
the dolphins and whales.
Their bodies got smaller,
their brains got bigger.
Now what we are trying
to figure out is what
happened at that time.
We think it has something
to do with the change in
their behavioral ecology,
meaning something to do
with their group living.
And we know that
one of the things that
characterizes
most dolphins and whales
today is the fact that
they are enormously
socially complex.
Dolphins are known
to be very talkative
and communicate to
other members of their pod
or social group through
whistles and clicks.
Non-verbal communication
is also used.
For example,
to ask her baby
to stop doing something,
a mother will nod her head
up and down.
This is the brain of
a Bottlenose Dolphin.
And the Bottlenose
Dolphin is probably
the best known
Cetacean species.
And there’s several points
that I want to make
about this brain.
First of all,
from an absolute size,
this brain is a lot bigger
than the human brain.
Second of all, the part of
the brain that is involved
in very high level
cognitive processing,
thinking, self-awareness
and that kind of thing,
is the neocortex and
that’s this wrinkled
outer portion here.
And as you can see
it’s very, very large.
Not only that, but it’s
even more convoluted
than the human brain,
meaning that there’s
more wrinkles in it,
so there’s a greater
surface area.
And what that tells me
is that, throughout their
evolutionary history,
dolphins’ and whales’
brains have expanded
tremendously
and in particular
in the regions that are
involved in higher order
cognitive processes.
When we return, we’ll
resume our fascinating
discussion about dolphins
with Dr. Lori Marino.
Please stay tuned to
Supreme Master
Television.
Welcome back to
Animal World:
Our Co-Inhabitants as we
continue our interview
with dolphin intelligence
expert, research scientist,
and senior lecturer
in neuroscience and
behavioral biology at
Emory University, USA,
Dr. Lori Marino.
Dolphins and whales
do have a number of
different cultures,
and by that I mean that
they have
learned behaviors that
are passed on from one
generation to the next.
Some of those cultures
are tool-using cultures.
So there is a group of
dolphins off the coast
of Australia
that use a sponge.
They carry the sponge
in their mouth and they
use that to root around
the bottom of the sand.
And it was started
by the dolphin female.
She passed it on to
her children and now
many of the dolphins,
though not all
in that group
do the sponge carrying.
So that’s a great example
of tool use and
cultural transmission
at the same time.
What if we were to
analyze a conversation
between two dolphins?
What would we find?
One of the very
interesting lines of
research that my colleague,
Brenda McCowan has been
doing is to look at the
natural communication
system of dolphins.
So she records
their whistle repertoire.
And then
through a mathematical
formulation takes a look
at whether or not
there’s structure
in that repertoire.
So you and I are talking
and if someone were to
record our speech and
put it through
the same process
they would find that
there’s a structure there.
The structure comes from
syntax, which is again
a very important aspect
of true language.
And what she has found
is that there is structure
in dolphin
communication signals.
What they’re saying
is not clear
but the fact that they are
saying something
in a very complex way
is pretty clear.
Dolphins are friendly
towards humans and
have been heroes
in emergency situations.
In Europe,
a dolphin saved
Italian teenager
Davide Ceci
from drowning.
Fourteen-year-old Davide
was in his father's boat
in the Adriatic Sea
when he accidently
fell overboard.
The boy did not know
how to swim, and
his father was unaware
of what had happened.
Davide was within
minutes of death, when
a dolphin named Filippo
came to the rescue by
keeping him above water.
At the time Filippo
was living off the coast
of Manfredonia
in southeast Italy
and was a well-known
and celebrated friend
to visitors of the area.
Dr. Giovanna Barbieri,
a maritime researcher,
stated, “Filippo seems
not to have the
slightest fear of humans.
I'm not surprised
he should have done
such a wonderful thing
as to save a human.”
Do you think that the
dolphins are in any way
trying to communicate
with us as human beings?
I think dolphins do try
to communicate with
human beings,
they certainly do that.
In the wild
they sometimes try to
make contact.
I think what’s important
to know about dolphins,
though, is that
they are so busy
with their own lives that
they’re not always
motivated to communicate
with humans.
And so what that means
is that we have to
leave them to
their natural lives so that
they can do what
they want to do.
Dr. Thomas White is
director of the Center
for Ethics and Business
at Loyola Marymount
University, USA,
and a scientific advisor
to the non-profit
research organization
the Wild Dolphin Project.
He is also the author
of the thoughtful book,
“In Defense of Dolphins:
The New Moral Frontier,”
in which he advocates
for regarding dolphins
as “non-human persons”
due to their intellectual and
emotional sophistication.
The idea of personhood
has been brought up by
a philosopher colleague
of mine, Tom White.
And he has put forth
this notion that dolphins
are sentient, intelligent,
emotional beings with
their own life to lead,
which I completely
agree with.
And that if you look at
being a person
as having those traits,
then dolphins certainly
qualify.
Lori Marino's research
on dolphin intelligence
caused her to make
an important decision
about her life’s direction.
I thought to myself that
I’ve spent 15 years or so
having a very good life,
professional life studying
dolphins and that
one thing I needed to do
was to use that expertise
to help them.
And so I decided to
make a shift in my career
and that includes
my personal life.
So I became
a scientist advocate,
not just a scientist.
And that’s changed
how I eat, that’s changed
the things that I do.
I advocate for animals
in all sorts of arenas, and
it’s become extremely
fulfilling for me and
I want to spend the rest
of my life doing whatever
I can to make things
a little bit better
for other animals that
we share the planet with.
Lori explains how
her love for animals
also caused her
to change her diet.
I’ve been vegetarian
for many, many years,
and I am in the process
of becoming vegan.
I realized that I had to
become a vegetarian
when one of my nieces,
who was about eight
years old at the time,
saw me order fish
in a restaurant.
And she looked at me
and she said, “Aunt Lori,
if you love animals
so much why are you
eating them?”
And you know, I didn’t
have a good answer
to that.
And that made me realize
that I had to become
a complete vegetarian
because there was
no way to defend it
any other way.
Many thanks,
Dr. Lori Marino
for helping us
understand the divine
intelligence of dolphins
and other animals.
Your efforts are helping
create a more
compassionate world,
where all beings live
in equality, freedom
and harmony.
For more details on
Dr. Marino, please visit
Thank you for joining us
on Animal World:
Our Co-Inhabitants.
Coming up next is
Enlightening Entertainment
after Noteworthy News
here on
Supreme Master Television.
May you enjoy greater
wisdom and happiness
with each passing day.