A new relationship with animals, nature and each other.

Dolphins and Us

“So long, and thanks for all the fish!”

Dolphins and Us

Part One: The Smartest of Us All?

“So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish!”
The famous message they left us in the sci-fi movie.

Amazing Abilities of Dolphins
What one scientist learned about them. It’s amazing.

Dolphins or Humans: Who’s Smarter?
Here are some of the facts. You decide.

Dolphin Society and Culture
How they live, learn, play and use their amazing echolocation.

They’re Super-Brainy, Too
Neuroscientist shows us a dolphin brain.

More Fascinating Stuff

The Great Researcher
Prof. Lou Herman taught us most of what we know. (Check out the videos.)

A Society that Works
Dolphin society is more successful than ours.

Are Dolphins “Persons”
Author Tom White explains what a “person” is.

Life and Culture
Their lives, games and gatherings.

How Smart is a Dolphin?
The processing power of their brains is huge.

Experimenting on Dolphins
Should we still be doing it? “Please don’t ask me,” says scientist who does it.

My Visit to the Dolphins
“A beautiful creature with liquid eyes was gazing up at me as we motored along.”

Other Links & Videos

Mirror Self-Recognition Test
How we know that dolphins are self-aware.

David Attenborough on Surfing

Spinner Dolphins with Humans

A Dolphin “Stampede”

And Another One!

And Riding the Bow Wave

Playing with Bubble Rings

Dancing in Tahiti

The Herman Investigation
The results that ended his research.

The Minds of Whales
A scientific paper about the brains of cetaceans.

Next: Part 2: The Business of Dolphins

 “So long, and thanks for all the fish!” It’s the famous message left by the dolphins when they depart Planet Earth in the sci-fi classic Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy just before the planet is demolished to make room for a galactic expressway. On a visit back to Earth, interstellar hitchhiker Arthur Dent discovers an audio message explaining that the dolphins, aware of the impending destruction of Earth, have left the planet for an alternate dimension. They’ve also gone to the trouble of saving the human species by replacing the destroyed Earth with a new version and transporting everyone there.

(This was especially nice of the dolphins, considering that the rather bone-headed humans had consistently ignored their warnings, believing that their squeaks, whistles and clicks were nothing more than mindless play, rather than the complex language of a super-intelligent species.)

Complex language? Super-intelligence? The truth about dolphins may turn out to be just as remarkable as the sci-fi version.

So just how smart are they in real life?

What are we learning about them and from them?

How do they treat us?

And how do we treat them in return?

We explore all this and more in this Big Story about the animals who may just possibly be the most advanced life form on Planet Earth. Enjoy!

. . . oh, and here’s the opening sequence from the movie version of the Hitchhiker’s Guide. It does quite a good job of summing up our relationship to dolphins.


(If it doesn’t play, try this.)

Next: Dolphins: How Smart Are They?