wtorek, 19 grudnia 2017

Is There Intelligent Sea Life

By Jennifer Evans


People have been fascinated with the sea and its creatures since they first saw it. From the beginning, people harvested fish and shellfish from the ocean for food, but they also enjoyed the diversity of life under the waves. Over the centuries, people have become convinced that intelligent sea life exists.

People alive today say they have been rescued by dolphins, who nudged them to shallow water after they had fallen from their boat. Whales seem to communicate with each other by song; some recent studies say that new songs are constantly being composed by these massive creatures. Those who spent their lives on the high seas learned all they could, since that could spell the difference between life and death, or at least between a profitable journey and financial disaster.

Divers today swear that dolphins and even barracuda learn to recognize them if they swim in one area regularly. Everyone who has been at the seaside knows to be careful about throwing food to the gulls, because every bird in the sky will shortly be besieging them for handouts. There is no doubt that the wild animals quickly learn the habits of people who interact with them.

Goldfish were once thought to have a memory span of about three seconds. A modern study, however, explodes this idea. Not only can goldfish - not saltwater fishes, it's true, but representative of the species - learn to feed themselves by operating a lever, they also can learn to work it only at meal times. Moreover, researchers found that the fish remembered the trick for three months or more.

Every visitor to an aquarium with regular shows knows that dolphins and Orcas can be trained. They eagerly perform to earn a reward, but they also seem to enjoy the performance itself and the attention of the audience. Seals are famous circus stars.

Animals often exhibit traits once thought to be exclusive to humans. In one case, dolphins who were adorned with painted designs spent hours admiring their decorations in a mirror. Many creatures form family or group bonds, recognize each other after long separations, and remember people or animals they once interacted with. Some scientists think animals may remember words, from several to several hundred.

Scientists classify some 'smart' behavior as instinct rather than reasoning. The study of instinctive behavior is fascinating, but many researchers are probing beyond things like migrations and survival instincts. They have documented examples of maternal love in whales and dolphins that seem to be as intense as that of humans. Those who believe in pure evolution may have a hard time with the many documented examples of what looks a lot like reason in sea creatures.

Animals on both land and sea have been observed using inanimate objects as tools. There are complex symbiotic relationships that raise questions. It just may be that sea creatures are smarter than we think. Scientists know that there is much still to learn about and from denizens of the watery realms that cover most of the earth.




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