Beastly Brains

“The dolphin also attempted to remove algae from an underwater window with a sea gull feather, in imitation of the activity of a human diver who regularly cleaned the window. The dolphin, while “cleaning” the window, reportedly produced sounds resembling those from the demand valve of the diver’s regulator and emitted a stream of bubbles in apparent imitation of the air expelled by the divers.”

This 1980 text of L.M. Herman describes the observations of Tayler and Saayman seven years prior. This behavior stands as a cheeky reminder that there’s probably more going on in the brains of animals than we might guess. Not that brain size is a sure-fire litmus test for intelligence, but the brain of the bottle-nosed dolphin is larger than that of humans, though not identical in organizational structure.

In the Okavango Delta, the 6000-square miles of natural splendor in Botswana, classic, storybook wild animals live. The Okavango is home to its own breed of wild dog: generally dark, skinny creatures, with seemingly splashed patches of white, and somewhat disproportionately large, round ears that shoot up, giving its head the look of a large, canine rodent. For every pack of these dogs, only two mate at a time, and produce a litter that the whole pack then raises.

Generally, canines don’t strike most people as a genus of abstinence. That these animals engage in such a seemingly aware and responsible manner with regard to their sexuality is striking. Their self-control allows the young to be raised in the most ideal environment possible.

References / Further Reading:

Animal Minds : Beyond Cognition to Consciousness, by Donald R. Griffin

The Greatest Places (Large Format)

Comments

[Belstaff Jacket]

Now we have a great walkway that goes to the beach and to the canals that came from the partnership of community with government