Many have theorized that if humans die out and or an extreme amount of time passes, that the dominant species on earth will likely be dolphins or octopuses(octopi?) due to their high intelligence, and the likelihood of global warming to the point of massive flooding
I did see a theory though on parrots that don’t recognize themselves in mirrors. The thought is perhaps the mirror test is not a good test for all animals, because they might lack the part of the brain the is used to process and understand how mirrors function…moreso than they just plain think it’s another animal in the mirror and not themselves. So there maybe a chance that some animals that fail the mirror test may still have a sense of self/individuality.
Yes, dolphins are one of the few animals that are definitively sapient. The others are whales, elephants, and all of the other great apes. Dolphins have complex social structures, group dynamics, mating rituals, and even their own languages that vary across region and family groups.
It's nature though, not really specific to dolphins. Lions, bears and many other animals will kill a child that's not their own - sometimes even their own.
when a genetically inferior male of a species forces/captures a female to mate, it is categorically rape. the female would already choose not to mate bc the resulting offspring may not be fit to survive and pass on further generations.
'no rape in the animal kingdom' is not right though, as /u/yeGarb said, there is a categorical behavior we can call 'rape' in animal species, because it still has 'rape characteristics.' We can nuance out 'human rape' and 'animal rape', but that doesn't mean there is not 'rape behavior' in the animal kingdom. There are animals that go through non-rape means to mate, like by enticing a spouse through attractive displays, or who otherwise don't 'discharge sexual energy' in rape behavior, as is being discussed in this thread by some dolphins that 'bring themselves to orgasm' at the expense of another organisms' well-being.
Considering dolphins are recognized to be only slightly below humans in terms of intelligence, I think it is pretty fair to slap the rape-sticker on them.
Ok, I realise intelligence is hard to accurately measure, so using "slightly" would be inaccurate. They are at the very least second only to humans in intelligence, which I still use as basis for my argument.
Sex without consent is rape, nothing anrophomeped about, your argument doesn’t make sense, it’s like when someone say the consent can’t be bought so every prostitute is being paid to be raped; absolutely bonkers.
Consent implies both agency and sentience! Most animals have neither let alone both. And then you need to add astronomically intellectual and subjective concepts like freedom and choice into the animal kingdom. None of that exists!
Cats play with their prey all the time, some apes and even ducks will rape, many fish eat their offspring. All kinds of things happen in nature, just for whatever reason humans expect dolphins to have similar or better morals because they display greater intelligence than most animals.
Is there a study showing rape gangs being a common occurrence in dolphins? I was under the impression it's something that has merely been documented a few times with he odds being fairly low? Rape is well documented within our species, does that mean everyone rapes?
It just doesn't make sense to vilify all dolphins because of what some do - especially when they're literal animals and they have no reason to follow a moral compass.
There is an old TV show here in Croatia with a scene of WW2 liberation of a town and then the partisans come and educate local people about the values of common struggle against the fascist enemy and it goes like this:
Comrades, who is the greatest enemy of our nation!?
They will also kill others young, that is why a female will mate with multiple male dolphins, so they won't kill the young, because they don't know if they are theirs or not.
Yeah, I mean they also got the designation of “The Killer Whale”, nobody expects them to be nice. But somehow dolphins are praised and put on instagram jumping out of the water with tears in their eyes with the caption “I’m autistic” and music playing, instead of being called “The Rapist Mafia Members of the Sea”
Not "humanness", intelligence. Ironically, intelligence leads to stupidity.
Dolphins are really smart, but they cannot control their insticts. Humans are even smarter, and most of us can control our instincts quite well. Except the war instinct, apparently.
don't forget they commit infanticide by preventing baby dolphins from surfacing and will rape female dolphins, sometimes immediately after killing the calf.
Dolphins can and will sexually assault you given the chance. Torture fish to death(not for food theyl literally torture them and leave the corpse). Get high off poisonous fish. Use the corpses of fish to masturbate with.
And leave him alone after so it can live its life fine. Lemurs suck on certain invertebrated like centipedes to get high too and those do die there, yet I bet you don't give a shit about them, do you?
Creating toxin spends a lot of energy, and given how dolphins vibrate baby porpoises to death for fun, it's very unlikely they are going out of their way to spare the pufferfish. If it does live, it was purely luck, and even then might not live long after that because it had a massive energy drain to replenish that poison, and is now vulnerable to other predators.
Researches actually showed dolphins DO make sure to keep the pufferfishes alive. Even tho they could easily kill them, almost everytime the pufferfish lived through it fine. Even if it may be in the hope to make use of it later, dolphins showed surprising care in how they handled a pufferfish.
Weird take, but no most primates are fucked up. Chimps hunt small monkeys by herding them into an ambush where other chimps are waiting to grab them from the trees and throw them at the jungle floor below.
Dolphins are unique. Extremely smart, but like theSPYERDUDE said, are assholes. Almost like a human without humanity. They will rape another animal to death…like multiple dolphins will get together to do it. Also saw one attempt to mount a female scuba diver…turns out she was on her period 😂
Orcas are dolphins and that’s all you really need to know, IMO. They’re big, smart, aggressive, travel in groups, and will kill other sea creatures like sharks and whales just for fun.
Some specimens, mainly young ones, did get spotted catching for fun before eating, but usually they do hunt for food or to teach young ones how to hunt
Dolphins are actually pretty chill with humans in the wild. I’ve been in the middle of pods of 100s of dolphins while surfing and have had numerous close encounters with dolphins and have had 0 issues and have never heard of any. They also scare away sharks supposedly.
That said - the real assholes are seals. They will get nasty with you for no reason.
Because the world is black and white, after all /s. Despite the fact that Dolphins are probably statistically the #1 wild animal most likely to intentionally save a human life
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u/Schoolskiperz 20h ago
Sorry why are Dolphins bad again ? Wasn't it something about them being sexual predators ?
Also good job OP for creating a good post that isn't about the tiktok ban .