| At Marine Studio Oceanarium, Bimbo, an 18 foot pilot whale stopped eating and became aggressive to smaller dolphins in the tank. The trainers, after a long issue, decided that maybe his ego needed bolstering. So they proceeded to drain the tank to the three-foot level. Bimbo, now stranded, began to whistle piteously. Soon all the dolphins gathered around and comforted him with conversation, which consisted of whistles, chirps and the usual dolphinese sounds. When the tank was again refilled, Bimbo's manners improved immediately v In 1962 Dr. Dreher and Dr. Evans were aboard the research vessel Sea Quest, 300 miles south of San Diego, studying grey whales. They had strung a number of vertical aluminium poles and microphones inside Scammon's Lagoon, erecting a type of barrier. Short time later five Pacific Bottle-nosed dolphins were spotted about 500 yards from the barrier. After a few minutes of what was labelled conversation, a scout was sent from the group. Microphones picked up his sonar soundings as he closely surveyed the poles. When he returned to the pod an explosion of whistles, chirps and Bronx cheer-like noises were recorded via microphones. After several minutes of conversation the dolphins proceeded through the barrier and into the bay v A similar occurrence was noted when, in 1962, several Lockheed Aircraft Corporation scientists erected a similar barrier across a channel, this time with stronger microphones. As the dolphins approached clicking noises were heard -- possibly sonar soundings. They gathered into a group in nearby shallow water about 400 feet from the barrier. During this time lots of clicks and squeaky-door sounds were recorded. A scout left the group and examined the barrier. When the dolphin returned he was greeted in the same manner as before. After about four minutes of conversation another scout was sent out. Upon his return he too was greeted with the explosion of whistles. After about two and a half minutes the dolphins merrily clicked through the barrier. Returning into the bay that afternoon, and the next morning leaving the bay, the pod did not send a scout when they came to the barrier...nor did they even slow down v Dr. John C. Lilly, who has provided extensive research on dolphins, performed the following two experiments which I consider well worthy of notice. o Using a mind probe set in the brain, which when stimulated with an electrical current gave the dolphin a rewarding sensation, Dr. Lilly set up a switch where Dolphin #6 could reward himself by pushing a lever. "While I was assembling it, I noticed that the dolphin was closely watching what I was doing. Almost before I could finish assembling and placing the rods necessary to push the switch (which was out of the water above the animal), the dolphin started pushing on the rod. By the time the switch was connected to the rest of the apparatus he had learned the proper way to push it." There were no random or apparent accidental contacts before the dolphin learned how. The same thing happened with three different dolphins. They seemed to anticipate the purpose of the switch. Probably from seeing him push it and connecting the push to the reward. Dr. Lilly had used this same technique on monkeys and made the statement that it usually took a chimp about 100 random tries before he learned to push the button, and then a few more to learn how to push the button. o Dr. Lilly was attempting to make Dolphin #8 whistle a burst of a given pitch, duration and intensity in order to obtain a reward. The dolphin quickly caught on. Every time he whistled his blowhole would move and a whistle would be emitted. Then Dr. Lilly noticed that the dolphin had added a new rule to the game. He was raising the pitch of each subsequent whistle. Suddenly, the blowhole twitched, but no sound. He had passed our hearing range. No sound-- no reward. Dolphin #8 emitted two more supersonic twitches and the third was heard able. From that time on he did not go out of Dr. Lilly's acoustic range. The Dolphin had determined what his hearing range was and stayed within it. Unfortunately the water temperature dropped too low and this dolphin was lost shortly after this session v In a noted experiment Dr. Javis Bastian found that dolphins could communicate about abstract ideas. Two dolphins in captivity, Buzz and Doris, were trained to push different switches to earn a fish. When a light came on and stayed on, they were supposed to push the right switch. When it blinked on and off, they were to push the left switch. No problem. But then the test became more complicated. They were taught to follow a sequence -- Doris had to wait for Buzz to press the signal first. Then they were separated so they could only hear each other. Finally, Buzz was blocked from seeing the light. When the light came on under those conditions and stayed on, Doris waited for Buzz to hit his signal. When he didn't, Doris eventually made a sound, and soon after Buzz pushed the right signal. Doris followed suit, and they got their fish. Almost every time the experiment was repeated Buzz pushed the correct switch, leading Dr. Bastian to conclude that dolphins can communicate abstract ideas, such as left and right. v More recently, researchers at the Sea Life Park in Hawaii have been testing dolphins through an underwater touch screen attached to a computer. There are no food rewards, so the dolphins use the touch screen solely for intellectual stimulation. The scientists found that the dolphins weren't particularly interested in abstractions, such as geometric patterns or artificial sounds. But they were very excited about touching the screen if it resulted in their seeing videos of other dolphins or hearing dolphin sounds. The next step will be to let dolphins choose video or audio sequences and then try to analyse why they're making those decisions. |
| Experiments |