Are Dolphins Smarter Than Apes?

Primates have long been considered the smartest species of the animal kingdom, thanks to many decades of research, but in recent years there's another animal that's proven to be quite the brainiac: the dolphin. In scientific circles, the thinking has generally been that the bigger the brain, the smarter the animal, and most dolphin species have a brain size that, when corrected for their body size, is second only to the human mind, which makes them bigger brained than even the Great Ape.

But is size really all that matters? We've seen through movies or visits to Sea World just how trainable dolphins can be, but even dogs are teachable, and canines aren't necessarily considered highly intelligent. So just how naturally gifted is the dolphin?

Knowing Themselves
Believe it or not, some recent studies suggest dolphins might be just as cognizant and self-aware as humans. For example, the National Academy of Science conducted a self-recognition test on bottlenose dolphins, in which dolphins were marked with ink on various parts of their bodies and then shown mirrors to test their recognition. Researchers were enthusiastic about the results, which showed that the dolphins spent more time evaluating themselves in the mirrors while they were marked than when they weren't. These findings have led scientists to conclude dolphins are capable of self-recognition, which makes the dolphin the first non-primate with this aptitude.

Connecting the Dots
The self-awareness breakthrough isn't the only discovery researchers have made about dolphin intelligence. Would you believe dolphins make excellent mathematicians? In a study conducted by the Dolphin Research Center in Miami, Fla., researchers set up two dotted graphs find out whether this marine mammal could grasp simple mathematical ideas. When trained to pick the graph with fewer dots, the dolphins were about 80 percent accurate in picking the right one, indicating that they understand the concepts of "less" or "more."

Dr. Stan Kuczaj, director of the Marine Mammal Behavior and Cognition lab at the University of Southern Mississippi, said in a report by the National Academy of Science, "More and less are important in foraging: It's better to swallow a big fish than a small fish. Or when corralling fish, you might want a good number but not so many that it's overwhelming."

Problem Solving
This research also confirms that dolphins are natural creative problem-solvers. Look no further than the various ways dolphins look for food to see their intelligence in action. For example, dolphins in Australia have been seen using sponges over their beaks to protect from scratches while foraging among coral or other sharp items on the ocean floor. Also, dolphins in South America use seaweed to trap their prey, and in Brazil, fish receive a flipper smackdown before being devoured.

Learn how dolphins socialize.

All of this evidence supports the theory that dolphins truly are extremely intelligent aquatic mammals. The jury is still out on whether primates have lost their title as the smartest animals in the wild kingdom, but with the bigger brain, self-awareness and adaptable problem-solving skills, the dolphin is most definitely a mammal to go ape for.