MAN AND DOLPHIN: MUTUAL FASCINATION OR ANTHROPOMORPHISM?
Stories describing the mutual fascination between dolphins and humans have existed throughout history and across cultures. As research into dolphin intelligence continues, scientists learn more about dolphins and their levels of self-awareness. Most researchers agree that dolphins exhibit a level of intelligence – which is not the same thing as self-awareness – greater than that of a dog and even comparable to that of some primates, but not humans.
While not denying dolphins’ intelligence, there is a fundamental question to consider: who gets the most out of the relationship between humans and dolphins? Is it us or them? It seems that dolphins adapt well to human companionship and are easily trained to perform complex tricks and tasks, leading us to assume that dolphins enjoy being around us as much as we enjoy being with them. So, is it possible that dolphins share our company simply for their own amusement? Do dolphins, or other animal species, in fact become bored with their own kind? The truth may be that the relationship is more one-sided than we like to think.
A few years ago, a pod of dolphins circled protectively round a group of swimmers to fend off an attack by a great white shark. The swimmers, including a lifeguard and his family, were swimming 300 feet off Ocean Beach near Whangarei on the New Zealand´s North Island when the dolphins started rounding them up, apparently to protect them from the huge shark. One of the swimmers said: ‘The dolphins started to herd us up; they pushed all of us together by swimming in tight circles around us’.
The group of swimmers spent approximately 40 minutes surrounded by the dolphins before the shark left and they could safely swim back to shore. A marine mammal research scientist at Auckland University said that dolphins were normally vigilant in the presence of sharks. This altruistic response of the dolphins is normal dolphin behavior: ‘They like helping the helpless’.
Adapted from Framework Advanced (p. 39), Richmond Publishing, 2005.
