Based on research on dolphins, it has been found that the way we treat them may affect them psychologically. Dolphin brains are very large and are second to humans based on the brain to body size relationship. Their brains are very well developed and have many of the same characteristics as our brains do. They are able to recognize themselves and are very intelligent animals.
When humans capture them and put them in captivity for entertainment purposes, they may be doing psychological damage to the dolphins. In knowing this, capturing dolphins has become an issue under ethical scrutiny. It has become an issue to figure out what effects we could be having on these delicate animals. Hopefully more research can be done in order to determine what effects we are having on dolphins. We need to protect all animals and we need to know whether we are doing harm or good.
This became a big topic for discussion on lots of science blogs this past week, and was a timely study considering the recent Orca trainer death at Sea World.
ReplyDeleteThis is interesting. When the government trains dolphins do they do in natural settings or captivity? It would be interesting to see if government training is harming the psychology of dolphins.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a very interesting topic! I wonder if the way that humans are treating other animals with a similar intelligence level as dolphins affects those animals in the same way.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad we are starting to recognize our impact on other organisms. Hopefully more people will begin to understand this too.
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