Are Dolphins Really Smart The mammal Behind the Myth - Justin Gregg (2013).pdf

How intelligent are dolphins? Is their communication system really as complex as human language? And are they as friendly and peaceful as they are made out to be?

Justin Gregg weighs up the claims made about dolphin intelligence and separates scientific fact from fiction. He presents the results of the latest research in animal behaviour, and puts our knowledge about them into perspective with comparisons to scientific studies of other animals, especially the crow family and great apes. He gives fascinating accounts of the challenges of testing what an animal with flippers and no facial expressions might actually be thinking. Gregg's evidence-based approach creates a comprehensive and up-to-date study of this fascinating animal which will appeal to all those intrigued by dolphin behaviour.

From Publishers Weekly
Gregg, described as a spokesperson for mainstream science, and co-editor of Aquatic Mammals, analyzes the state of scientific research on dolphin cognition—alongside other notable species such as apes, corvids, and bees—to address the mystique arising from John Lilly's writings about dolphin intelligence, which inspired some organizations to push for legal cetacean personhood. Gregg argues that defining an animal's intelligence as a single metric is an unscientific attempt to fit behaviors into a human-like model. He prefers operational definitions of specific cognitive tasks, which allow us to acknowledge limited skills, such as facial recognition abilities among sheep. Gregg dismisses brain size or the possession of specific biological structures as indicators of complex cognition, and highlights difficulties in test design for understanding a theory of mind, including the mirror self-recognition test. Defining language in terms of parameters like limitless expression and arbitrariness of symbols, Gregg shows that, like chimpanzees, dolphins have communication systems with some sophisticated characteristics, but which do not approach the complexity of human language. Finally, Gregg addresses the myth of dolphins as gentle creatures, highlighting aggressive behaviors and infanticide in the wild, leaving readers with a sense of dolphins as fascinating creatures, but not ones to put on a pedestal for wisdom, ethics, or nearness to the human experience. (Dec.)
From Booklist
In popular culture dolphins enjoy a reputation as happy-go-lucky sea creatures whose sophisticated display of social etiquette and amazingly intricate clicking language suggest a remarkable intelligence rivaling even that of humans. But how much of this lofty image is based on media hyperbole and how much on unvarnished evidence? In this thorough and engaging report on contemporary cetacean science, Aquatic Mammals coeditor and dolphin researcher Gregg separates the myths from the realities about these grinning SeaWorld stars. For starters, Gregg debunks many still widely believed notions first publicized by John Lilly, often deemed the father of modern dolphin research, such as the idea that larger brains (true for dolphins) necessarily correlate with higher animal IQs (not true for all animals). Also, while dolphins’ echolocation talents give them enormous communication and food-finding advantages, similar abilities have been noted in animals as lowly as the common chicken. Though Gregg’s studies of dolphin intelligence verges on the scholarly, his writing skills are solid and his observations are often fascinating. --Carl Hays

Biography
Justin Gregg is a research associate with the Dolphin Communication Project, and Co-Editor of the academic journal Aquatic Mammals. He received his doctorate from Trinity College Dublin in 2008, having studied social cognition and the echolocation behavior of wild Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins. With an undergraduate background in linguistics, Justin is particularly interested in the study of dolphin communication as it pertains to comparisons of human (natural) language and animal communication systems.