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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCaretakers say dolphins at popular spot miss tourists and keep leaving 'gifts' on shore
I think they miss humans. yes. they do.
Link to tweet
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Caretakers say dolphins at popular spot miss tourists and keep leaving 'gifts' on shore
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/498781-caretakers-say-dolphins-at-popular-spot-miss-tourists-and-keep
Dolphins who frequent Australias Tin Can Bay, a popular tourist spot, have taken to bringing gifts ashore, apparently missing the visitors who would normally be lined up to feed them before the coronavirus pandemic.
The pod of humpback dolphins has brought sponges, barnacle-covered bottles and fragments of coral to Queenslands Barnacles Cafe & Dolphin Feeding in recent weeks, a volunteer told Australias 7News.
Nothing surprises me with dolphins and their behavior anymore, Barry McGovern, a dolphin expert and PhD student at University of Queensland, told the outlet. They do everything - they use tools, they have culture, they have something similar to names in signature whistles."
In all likelihood, they probably dont miss humans per se," he added. "They probably miss a free meal and the routine."...................
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Aristus
(66,075 posts)sdfernando
(4,896 posts)Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
Baclava
(12,047 posts)MineralMan
(146,189 posts)Animals seek diversions and put a high value on play. Food is important, too, but interactions between humans and animals are rewarding for both.
We all understand the relationships we have with our pets, if we have pets. But, we often miss noticing relationships with other animals. If you feed birds in your yard, try stopping doing that for a couple of days. You'll soon discover that they know who is bringing out the food, and they'll show up to remind you. For example, if our hummingbird feeder is empty, the hummingbirds will come up and hover at our front window to remind us. Same with other birds.
Crows often leave shiny objects in our yard. Why? I can't say for sure, but they eat in the yard, as well.
So, yes, the dolphins (porpoises) at that location are used to the food they get, but they are also used to and enjoy the interactions with the humans they encounter, and miss that when it is not available.
We're animals, too. It shouldn't be too hard for us to imagine the reasons other animals seek out our company.
Liberty Belle
(9,528 posts)as an offering for us apparently. There must have been a lot of gophers in Idaho, where we were living at the time!
DeminPennswoods
(15,246 posts)because they think of their humans as their kittens that need to be fed. No idea if this is true or not.
calimary
(80,693 posts)They bring their prize home.
My mom killed that in the first cat I had. He proudly brought the dead mouse to the door. She screamed and freaked out, and shoo'd it away.
From then on, he took his prizes next door, where the neighbors appreciated it, and him, and gave him treats and petted him for it. He wouldn't leave them for us anymore. Made me sad.
That woman just didn't get it. Literally as well as figuratively.
DeminPennswoods
(15,246 posts)As soon as it/they see me throw food leftovers, scraps out the door, I hear a "caw, caw, caw" and pretty soon there are a few on the ground finding what I tossed out.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Now I'm not comparing a toad with cats or dolphins, exactly. But where our son used to live, when he went out on the back steps to sit after work, a toad would come up and sit with him.
He was able to show his buddy off to us and friends just by going out and sitting while we watched from inside. Given its preferred diet of insects, slugs, etc., he'd never fed the toad, either, and I'm pretty sure that if he'd been attracting insects for it he would have noticed.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)They are forever entertaining.
I have a flock of house finches, tufted titmouses (mice?), cardinals, wrens, chickadees, and the other day a Rose breasted grosbeak came to call.
A wee bit worried that the sudden influx of brown thrashers are scaring off some of the smaller birds. I noticed a difference when they appeared.
Backyard has blue jays and crows; Id like to attract more crows. Any ideas? I put peanuts out for the jays and squirrels..
MineralMan
(146,189 posts)They're pretty much omnivorous though.
FM123
(10,050 posts)you beautiful creatures are our gifts. This planet would not be the same without you....
Disaffected
(4,503 posts)more people do not realize that.
As Darwin said:
"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and ..."
FM123
(10,050 posts)Thanks for sharing it.
Disaffected
(4,503 posts)BTW, the Finnish band Nightwish has an album with such a theme , "Endless Forms Most Beautiful", with an introduction by Richard Dawkins quoting Darwin.
I don't know if there is such a thing as "beautiful metal" but that's what it sounds like to me. Thanks again.
Disaffected
(4,503 posts)now they're my favourite band. Glad you liked it.
DesertRat
(27,995 posts)"They probably miss a free meal and the routine."
Nitram
(22,663 posts)with people. Cats and dogs do, too. It's not "just the food." And dolphins actually get bored and refuse to cooperate if a routine goes on too long without variation.
Vogon_Glory
(9,084 posts)And here I am on the high side of sixty realizing that it isnt just a human thing!
hlthe2b
(101,699 posts)most intelligent, publish numerous studies on their capacity for learning and problem solving, but then, in fear of admitting we underestimate animal intelligence ALWAYS have to conclude they have no emotional iintelligence, but instead are just looking for a "free meal and the routine."
A big F--ck off to that "researcher" and those so desperate to assume all-consuming human superiority. Yeah, it pisses the hell out of me that some are so insecure and blind to the complexity of the world around us.
Turin_C3PO
(13,649 posts)That was my reaction to the article also.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)Its intellectually stimulating. In other words, FUN!
Laelth
(32,017 posts)And they miss the LOVE. They have developed emotional brains.
-Laelth
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)StarryNite
(9,363 posts)We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate for having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein do we err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.
― Henry Beston
hlthe2b
(101,699 posts)It always make me laugh to hear supposed researchers spout this nonsense.
Nitram
(22,663 posts)dalton99a
(81,062 posts)Initech
(99,909 posts)DeminPennswoods
(15,246 posts)swim right up to visitors expecting to be fed.
Ilsa
(61,675 posts)are ready to take over now. I saw one sneaking around to the back of the barn the other day. They've been walking on land for years, doing sciency stuff in sheds, barns, etc, developing viruses to take us out. I swear, I think one has been watching my Netflix recently.
Rhiannon12866
(202,961 posts)Dolphins really do have human sensibilities... and of course they miss the treats.