So I was watching this Nova special about intelligence in animals. They talked the famous talking parrot Alex, camouflaging mollusks, this one smart ass dog who actually inferred something, and some others.
To me, by far the most incredible feat was these two dolphins communicating about, creating, and then performing a new trick. Let's talk about dolphins for a bit. We know they are smart sea creatures capable of doing cool sea tricks, looking happy, and sometimes exhibiting very disturbing sexual behavior. We also know that they can use echolocation, and that they communicate using clicks and whistles. However, we don't exactly know the nature of this communication. Are they akin to, say, sounds that a theoretical caveman might make, i.e. a yell to signify danger, a grunt to signify food, a different grunt to signify other caveman things? Or do these clicks and whistles have structure? In other words, can dolphins discuss and exchange ideas?
