6 Amazing Facts About Dolphin Intelligence

Dolphins are amazing creatures. Not only are they actually mammals instead of fish – despite living in the ocean, but they’re actually fairly intelligent compared to other animals too!

We can see the appeal for dolphins since they look incredibly adorable, but let me tell you about some facts about dolphins that’ll show you that they have brains and beauty.

They Set Traps And Plan Ahead
Once upon a time in Mississippi, dolphins were trained to collect trash and then exchange it for fish. Seems like a simple thing to do, right? Well, a dolphin named Kelly turned it up a notch. She collected pieces of paper, tore them into smaller pieces and exchanged all the small pieces so she could get more fish than the big piece would get her. This pretty much proves dolphins have the intelligence to leave the small reward now if that means a bigger reward later.

This same dolphin later caught a seagull in her tank and got a whole boatload of fish as a reward for that. She left the fish out in the open to draw in more seagulls, and even taught the seagull trap to her offspring.

They’re Good Mimics
Dolphins are one of the few animal species on the planet that are actually good at mimicking vocals and behavior. They’re even able to replicate sounds that don’t appear within their own ecosystem! They can even mimic human movement – but they’ll only do so for a reward. This proves that they can understand that their flippers are essentially the equivalent to a human’s arms.