Are Dolphins Really Smart?

Five years ago, I reviewed a book that argued that dolphins qualified as persons and should therefore be protected as such under international law. The case seemed convincing enough, but this book provides an update as well as a history of dolphin research, running to over 60 pages of notes and references. It aims to provide a balanced view of the evidence while at the same time critically examining competing claims based on empirical research. It turns out that the popular understanding of dolphin intelligence derives almost completely from the work of John Lilly in the 1950s. The author examines in detail five main ideas: that the dolphin brain is unusually large and sophisticated, that the dolphin mind is unusually complex in terms of self-awareness, consciousness and emotions, that they display sophisticated behaviour in the wild and in experimental situations, that they speak their own language, and that they lead complex social lives living in harmony with each other and their environment. These themes provide the main chapter headings and the picture emerging is much more complex and nuanced, as one would expect from careful scientific research. There are also issues with terminology such as intelligence - scientists prefer to use the more neutral term of animal cognition.

One example concerns the nature of dolphin language. Gregg provides a set of ten criteria as markers, where human beings will score 5 out of 5. It turns out that dolphins score 20/50, the same as chimpanzees and four more than bees. The idea that they are always gentle is also shown to be false, although they also display remarkable capacities for cooperation and altruism. The author relates his own experience of swimming near an aggressive male where he was astonished that one of his fellows interpreted this behaviour as friendly and playful, in accordance with his own preconceptions. The last chapter sums up his findings, which I found very fair in view of the evidence cited. He makes a more general point that we need to considered dolphins in relation to other intelligent species and that we may be left with as many questions as answers. He takes the view that it is not necessary to accord a special status to dolphins to argue for their protection, which can equally be supported on the grounds of minimising suffering. In the end, this is a philosophical and ethical rather than a purely scientific issue.