Talk:Dolphin/Archive 1

message: According to an article in the English-language part of Al Jazeera's homepage, Dolphins are not as intelligent as Goldfish. Their brains are bigger, because they are warmblooded in a cold water environment, but they have fewer neurons than Goldfish. The article also mentions some other examples of why Goldfish are smarter than Dolphins. I don't have reference, but it seems that the theory, that Dolphins should be very intelligent, needs documentation, and if proper documentation cannot be found, we should be careful about saying that Dolphins are very intelligent. Dybdahl 08:38, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I've been talking to the person who made this claim and to be honest, I find it very questionable. He considers evidence supporting their intelligence in the form of behavioural studies "argueable", despite the overwhelming amount of evidence coming from this front. Read the entire article from Manger here: . Anyway, I guess it may be worth mentioning so I added it again. BabyNuke 12:14, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

text: Paul Manger's conjecture is based in part by arguing that 1) all claims to intelligence on the part of dolphins is based upon the complexity of their vocalizations and 2) dolphins don't have complex neural control of "vocal cords", ERGO there is no positive evidence of dolphin intelligence. (1) is simply false; vocalization complexity is not the only evidence of dolphin intelligence. Lori Marino at Emory University has been doing a good job of responding to Manger on this basis. (2) on the other hand, is completely irrelevant. The laryngeal sound production hypothesis for dolphins is dead and buried. Dolphins do have complex vocalizations, but the primary locus for production of these is at the phonic lips, about 2.5cm below the blowhole. Manger is apparently completely ignorant of this. --Wesley R. Elsberry 19:44, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Intelligence

message: Why did you revert the edit that added "subphylum: vertebrata" to the classification table? This is not my field, but looking at Vertebrate it seems to me that the edit was correct (except for "vertebrata" not being spelled "vertabrata" in Latin, as far as I know). LjL 21:16, 28 July 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Oh, uh, sorry, wasn't intentional. I thought I was on the talk page. LjL 22:06, 28 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Subphylum removal 

message: While there's lots of interesting stuff in the article, let me offer one factoid that isn't: dolphin milk is about 33% fat, roughly the same as whipping cream. (I think I got that from the Miami Dolphin Creamery Association...so I'd verify it before including.)  Trekphiler 00:17, 23 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mammal from Mundanea 

message: There is no mention of typical lifespan of Dolphins in the article, which I thought was odd. --Colin Angus Mackay 11:35, 31 December 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: When somebody figures out what the lifespan in the wild is, I'm sure that it will get added. There are T. truncatus in the care of man that have lived to their late thirties and early forties. I don't think that I've heard of any reaching fifty or more years of age. I suspect that average lifespan in the wild is on the short side of thirty years, but I have as little means to verify that as various others have for claiming that mean lifespan in the wild is longer than thirty. Probably the best guide to age distribution in the wild will come from the long-term study of the Sarasota, Florida population conducted under Randy Wells. They've been tracking many dolphins, and they've been doing this for a couple of decades now. Ironically, Wells and his colleagues are perenially harassed by animal rights activists. -- Wesley R. Elsberry 14:53, 15 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lifespan 

message: A vandal added, "And remember...when provoked DOLPHINS WILL EAT POO." Actually, various dolphins will customarily sample water from where a conspecific has just defecated. While dolphins don't have a sense of smell, they do have a well-developed sense of taste. Researchers hypothesize that they may be able to obtain some information on health status and especially reproductive status in this way. Wesley R. Elsberry 00:22, 13 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Inadvertent truth

message: What do they mean by Sousa chinensis chinensis? Binomials can't have 3 worlds! Binomials should always be 2 words with the first word capitalised!
Chinese White Dolphin IS Sousa chinensis. It is a sub-species of Humpback Dolphin, BUT Sousa Chinensis= Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin. Cherubfish 17:56, 16 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sousa chinensis chinensis ??? 

message: Are dolphins endangered?--Are they stable? This needs to be in the little box of summary information like other animals Nastajus 15:05, 22 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: No. We put those remarks on species boxes, not on higher level boxes. Look at each dolphin species article for its status. - UtherSRG (talk) 16:50, 22 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Converstaion status

message: I just got back from Mexico where I had an opportunity to swim with Dolphins, upon my return I decided to do some research on How we are able to Train dolpins.  Sadly, there are no articles.  Unfortunately I am not able to write an article on this topic so I was hoping that someone reading this may be able to shed some light on the topic.
: Dolphins are trained via operant conditioning. Within that, people have figured out that positive reinforcement is the way to go. The situation with dolphins actually has some overlap with the approach falconers take with their birds, which respond quite badly if punishment is used rather than positive reinforcement. -- Wesley R. Elsberry 00:43, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  Needs more  Skinner boxes. Seriously I majored in psych, and I have no idea what you're trying to say. Chris 18:02, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  What part do you find confusing, that dolphins are trained using operant conditioning and positive reinforcement, or that there is a similarity between dolphins and falcons in that both don't train well using any sort of punishment? --Wesley R. Elsberry 20:05, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dolphin Training 

message: Minor request for an expert, how fast can the fastest dolphin's swim? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 216.145.236.207 (talk • contribs) .
:I believe for the bottlenose, about 50 km/h is pretty much the maximum. I'm not sure if they're the fastest of all dolphin species though, but I do not expect any other species to be significantly faster. BabyNuke 20:52, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  Killer whales have been recorded at 55km/h ;) SammytheSeal 06:39, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  speed 

message: I heard recently (on the TV show Lonely Planet, the episode set in Perth, Australia) that new evidence is suggesting that dolphins may not enjoy swimming with us nearly as much as we thought, that many areas are banning organised dolphin swims, and that being able to swim with dolphins may soon be a thing of the past. I seem to recall that it might have mentioned something about it not being very healthy for them. Anyone else hear this, or know of a reference that could be cited? Hegar 18:36, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, I believe that in Hawaii for example, dolphin tours are now so abundant that they start to interfere with the every day life of the animals. Constantly being followed by boats for example denies them needed resting periods. Besides this, the experience may be special for people, if dolphins have to go through the same thing every day, it's no surprise they quickly lose interest.  BabyNuke 19:15, 31 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Swimming with Dolphins? 

message: I feel this section needs a re-write. First, I think it is very much possible to get rid of the list. Second, many entries are very trivial. Any ideas? BabyNuke 13:08, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Rewrote it, keeping all but one of the original entries. BabyNuke 16:59, 4 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dolphins in human culture 

message: This article, since no others were nominated, has become the Cetaceans Collaboration of the Month. Unfortunately, the only recent edits have been testing, vandalism, and reversions. Do your best to improve it! --Gray PorpoisePhocoenidae, not Delphinidae 10:49, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I already rewrote the entire "dolphins in human culture" section. Anyway, I suppose the most important thing the article needs now is references. BabyNuke 11:32, 11 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Collaboration 

message: I've removed the following external links:
http://www.allaboutdolphins.net - disputeable information
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4034383.stm - too specific article, could function as a reference
http://www.cetacea.org - website down
http://www.robins-island.org/ - rather simplistic
http://www.wilddolphin.org/dolphinpictures.htm - dead
http://www.accobams.org/download/articles/population/Agazzi_etal_2004.pdf - again too specific for an external link, but can be used as reference
http://www.projectshum.org/Dolphins/ - far too simple, plus the jokes ain't funny
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,13026,989714,00.html - also too specific
BabyNuke 22:16, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Interesting to say the least. Probably worth mentioning. No suprise where the dolphin got captured though. BabyNuke 10:08, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pruned external links 

message: At a glance, most of the article looks pretty good. One problem, though, is that the introduction is too short. --Gray Porpoisecetaceans have large brains 00:26, 13 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Introduction 

message: News report on failure of survey to find baiji
The baiji, or Yangtze River Dolphin, is most likely extinct. A 26-day survey failed to locate any of the baiji. --Wesley R. Elsberry 01:38, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I've already mentioned it in the treaths to dolphins section. BabyNuke 11:00, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Extinction of Baiji